Avici claims faster, simpler network restoration

America's Network, Dec 1, 2003

Carriers operating IP networks traditionally have had two choices for network restoration in the event of a network topology change--such as during an outage or if a location is added. The carriers could allow the network to reconfigure itself automatically in about 20 seconds using the Internet protocol--an easy choice for traffic that is not delay-sensitive. Or, for carriers that are carrying real-time voice and video traffic, MPLS-based fast restoration offers quicker restoration times. The problem with MPLS-based solutions, however, is that they require pre-provisioning, which consumes extra resources.

New router software from Avici Systems, dubbed RAPID (for "reliable alternative paths for IP destinations"), claims to combine the fast restoration times of MPLS with the ease of traditional IP restoration methods.

"We developed a patented algorithm that pre-calculates a secondary next path that the router can use if there is a change in the network," says Hudson Gilmer, Avici senior product marketing manager. "This reduces restoration times from 20 seconds to a single second. What Avici is trying to do is to maintain auto-resilience, but make it work faster. If there is a topology change in the network, we don't have to wait until the entire network has re-optimized. We use the pre-calculated next hop."

Avici sees a growing demand for simpler faster restoration times as IP network growth increasingly is driven by time-sensitive real-time traffic.

"This is the next step in the high availability mantra that they've been pushing," says Joe McGarvey, senior analyst for Current Analysis. "First they introduced non-stop routing for the control part. If that fails, it will fail over to the backup one. This is more of a network wide attempt to ensure even higher availability."

RAPID is a software upgrade to an existing Avici router, McGarvey explains.

Currently, however, the solution is a proprietary one, which means that carriers can only experience its benefits in the portion of their IP networks that contain Avici routers. But, says Gilmer, "it's not unlikely we could license it for more broad use."

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