Optical channel protection device and method, equipment and medium

Abstract

The invention discloses an optical channel protection device and method, equipment and a medium. An exemplary optical channel protection method may include: in response to receiving fault information in an optical transmission network, performing alarm evaluation based on the fault information, the fault information including first fault information associated with an electrical layer of the optical transmission network; and generating an action indication of optical channel switching at least based on a result of the evaluation.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to the field of network communication technology, and in particular to an optical channel protection device, method, equipment and storage medium for an optical transport network (OTN) and a data center interconnect (DCI). Background Art

[0002] The Optical Transport Network (OTN) is a transmission network based on wavelength division multiplexing technology. It can be used to carry comprehensive services such as Data Center Interconnection (DCI). The OTN network consists of an optical layer for transmitting optical signals and an electrical layer for converting optical signals into electrical signals. The electrical layer converts the transmitted optical signals into electrical signals, and performs signal recovery and electrical signal processing at the receiving terminal.

[0003] OTN / DCI network systems typically require support for optical line protection (OLP) mechanisms to restore user services between network nodes in the event of an optical failure. Optical transmission networks use two independent optical lines for optical signal transmission. Terminal nodes automatically select the optimal path based on detected fault conditions, ensuring normal service operation.

[0004] Existing OLP modules are all implemented based on the optical power detection of optical signals transmitted at the optical layer. Currently, there is no mechanism for photoelectric coordinated protection between the optical layer and the electrical layer. Summary of the Invention

[0005] Various exemplary embodiments of the present application are intended to address at least part of the above-mentioned problems or issues.

[0006] According to a first aspect of the present application, an optical channel protection method is provided, comprising: in response to receiving fault information in an optical transmission network, performing an alarm evaluation based on the fault information, wherein the fault information includes first fault information associated with the electrical layer of the optical transmission network; and generating an action indication for optical channel switching based at least on a result of the evaluation.

[0007] According to a second aspect, an optical channel protection device is provided. The optical channel protection device may include at least one processor and at least one memory. The at least one memory may store instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the optical channel protection device to at least: in response to receiving fault information in an optical transmission network, perform an alarm assessment based on the fault information, the fault information including first fault information associated with an electrical layer of the optical transmission network; and generate an action indication for optical channel switching based at least on a result of the assessment.

[0008] In a third aspect, an optical channel protection device is provided, including: an alarm evaluation module for performing an alarm evaluation based on fault information received in an optical transmission network in response to the fault information, wherein the fault information includes first fault information associated with the electrical layer of the optical transmission network; and an action indication generation module for generating an action indication for optical channel switching based at least on a result of the evaluation.

[0009] In a fourth aspect, a computer program product is provided, comprising (computer-executable) computer program instructions, which are configured to cause the computer to perform the method of the aforementioned related exemplary aspects when the instructions are executed (or run) on the computer.

[0010] The computer program product may include or be embodied as a computer-readable (storage) medium or the like on which are stored computer program instructions executable by a computer and / or a program directly loadable into the internal memory of a computer or its processor. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0011] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of protection networking in an optical channel protection (OCHP) scenario is shown;

[0012] Figure 2 A schematic diagram illustrating the architecture of an optical channel protection system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application is shown;

[0013] Figure 3 An example process of an optical channel protection method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application is shown;

[0014] Figure 4 A schematic diagram showing a fault message according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application is shown;

[0015] Figure 5 A schematic diagram illustrating optical channel protection switching according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application is shown;

[0016] Figure 6A 6B shows a schematic diagram of optical channel protection switching according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application;

[0017] Figure 7 A schematic diagram illustrating optical channel protection switching according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application is shown;

[0018] Figure 8 A schematic diagram illustrating optical channel protection switching according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application is shown;

[0019] Figure 9 A schematic diagram illustrating optical channel protection switching according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application is shown;

[0020] Figure 10 A schematic diagram illustrating optical channel protection switching according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application is shown;

[0021] Figure 11 A schematic diagram illustrating optical channel protection switching according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application is shown;

[0022] Figure 12 A schematic block diagram of an optical channel protection device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application is shown.

[0023] Figure 13 A schematic block diagram of an optical channel protection device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application is shown.

[0024] The same or substantially the same elements, operations, and steps shown in various drawings may be represented by the same reference numerals. For clarity, not every element, operation, or step is shown in every drawing. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0025] The exemplary embodiments of the present application will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that the present application should not be construed as limited to the exemplary embodiments described herein, but may also be implemented in various other forms, and these exemplary embodiments are provided only for a more thorough and complete understanding of the present application. It should also be understood that the drawings of the present application are provided only as examples and are not intended to limit the precise form of the embodiments or to define the scope of protection of the present application.

[0026] In order to increase the robustness of communication links, optical communication networks usually provide signal protection through redundant lines. Figure 1 The diagram shows the networking diagram of the optical transport network (OTN) in the optical channel protection (OCHP) scenario. As shown in the figure, the client device can send and receive bidirectional services through the optical transponder (OT) 105, 110, wherein the OT 105, 110 can be set in the electrical layer board, for example. The optical layer of the OTN network can include components such as optical line protection devices (OLP) 115, 120, multiplexer (MUX) 130, and optical amplifier (OA) 140. During the communication process, the service data is converted into an optical signal by the OT 105, and then the optical signal is broadcast to the working optical path 150 and the protection optical path 160 for transmission through the OLP 115. The OT 110 at the receiving end can select a better path, such as the working optical path 150, according to the quality of the received signal. Although Figure 1 Only a pair of optical converters at the client is shown, but it can be understood that the optical transport network OTN may include multiple optical converters, each of which can perform optical channel selection through a corresponding optical line protection device. It can also be understood that Figure 1The optical channel protection (OCHP) shown can also be applied to other optical transmission networks such as DCI. That is, the terms "optical communication network" and "optical transmission network" in this article include various network systems such as OTN and DCI that use optical signals for data transmission.

[0027] During the actual transmission of optical signals at the optical layer of an OTN / DCI network, optical power often decreases due to fiber breakage, degradation, jitter, and other factors. In this case, the OLP 120 detects the change in optical power of optical signals on all optical paths. When the optical power of an optical signal on the current optical path drops below a preset threshold, the OLP 120 switches the channel signal from the working optical path 150 to the protection optical path 160 to protect the service wavelength.

[0028] The above uses optical channel protection (OCHP) as an example to illustrate the application scenarios of the embodiments of the present application. The present application is not limited to this. As described below, some embodiments of the present application are also compatible with optical transmission networks with other protection modes, such as optical multiplex section protection (OMSP) and optical line segment protection (OLP). As those skilled in the art will appreciate, the optical line protection device in optical multiplex section protection (OMSP) is located between the multiplexer / demultiplexer (MUX) unit and the optical amplifier (OA) unit, while the optical line protection device in optical line segment protection (OLP) is located after the optical amplifier (OA) unit. Its working principle is similar to that of optical channel protection (OCHP) and will not be repeated here.

[0029] Existing OCHP, OMSP, and OLP optical line protection systems are all based on detecting the optical power of optical signals transmitted at the optical layer. For example, they trigger optical line switching when the optical power falls below a set threshold. Ideally, the initially set power threshold should ensure that even during subsequent system operation, even if electrical layer performance degrades to a certain level, optical channel switching protection is triggered.

[0030] However, this one-time setting method cannot effectively support optical line protection in some situations. For example, for long-distance transmission, since the performance tolerance of the service-carrying wavelength will change dynamically during long-term operation, when there is no dynamic update mechanism for the optical power switching threshold, the degradation of the optical channel performance may cause forward error correction (FEC) errors in the electrical layer. However, since the optical layer detection does not reach the optical power threshold, the protection switching of the optical line will not be triggered at this time. For another example, long-distance transmission is achieved by setting up an electrical relay device on the transmission line. If the upstream link of the electrical relay device experiences optical loss or signal degradation, this may cause forward error correction errors in the electrical layer or trigger the Optical Channel Data Unit-Alarm Indication Signal (ODU-AIS). However, the received optical power at the downstream device node of the electrical relay device has not changed significantly, so the protection switching of the optical line will not be triggered, which will affect the normal operation of the communication service.

[0031] In view of this, some aspects of the embodiments of the present application provide an optical channel protection method for an optical transmission network. By establishing a mechanism for collaborative monitoring and switching protection of the electrical layer and the optical layer in networks such as OTN / DCI, when the electrical layer module detects fault information (for example, bit error, interruption), the optical layer module can be triggered to perform optical channel switching protection. At the same time, when the optical layer module detects fault information (for example, light loss), switching operations can be performed based on the priority of the electrical layer and the optical layer, thereby reducing or even eliminating the impact on the normal operation of the business, and improving the reliability of the optical transmission network.

[0032] Figure 2 The following illustrates an example architecture of an optical channel collaborative protection system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application. The optical channel protection system includes an electrical layer module, an optical layer module, and a data communication module 200. The electrical layer module can be installed on an electrical layer card (disk) and includes an optical transceiver (OT) 110. The optical layer module can be installed on an optical layer card and includes an optical layer protection module and a state machine, such as an optical line protection device (OLP) 120. The OT 110 and OLP 120 can be located in the same shelf or across different shelves, and can communicate data between them via the data communication module 200.

[0033] like Figure 2As shown, the optical transceiver OT 110 of the electrical layer module may include a digital coherent optics (DCO) module 112 and an OT processor 112. The DCO module 112 can perform optoelectronic conversion on the received optical signal into an electrical signal and monitor the signal performance. When it is found that the optical power of the input optical signal is too low or the input signal continuity is lost, a signal loss (LOS) fault message is generated; when the received data frame cannot be correctly parsed, a frame loss (LOF), a multi-frame loss (LOM), an alarm indication signal (AIS), a bit interleaved parity 8-threshold crossing alert (BIP8 TCA), an uncorrectable FEC block-threshold crossing alert (UCB TCA) and other fault messages are generated. When detecting such fault information, the DCO module 112 may send the corresponding fault information to the OT processor 114 .

[0034] After receiving the electrical fault information from the DCO module 112, the OT processor 114 integrates the original fault information with the identification information of the OT 110 (e.g., the physical channel identifier) to form a layer 2 internal LAN (ILAN) fault message. The OT processor 114 then sends the fault message to the corresponding optical line protection device (OLP) 120 via the data communication module 200 (e.g., a communication device or module that performs data forwarding functions, such as a switch). If a change in the fault information is detected, the OT processor 114 can promptly send the new fault message to the OLP 120 via the ILAN communication channel so that the OLP 120 can quickly respond and perform optical channel protection operations.

[0035] Although only one optical transceiver OT module is shown in the figure, it can be understood that the optical transmission network such as OTN / DCI in this embodiment may include multiple OT modules, each of which has similar functional components and can send detected electrical layer fault information to OLP 120 through the data communication module 200.

[0036] In response to receiving the fault message from the OT 110 , the data communication module 200 may determine the optical line protection device corresponding to the OT 110 , such as the OLP 120 , according to identification information included in the fault message, and forward the fault message to the OLP 120 .

[0037] The optical line protection device (OLP) 120 may include a finite state machine (FSM) 122 and an optical layer line protection (OLP) module 124, both of which may be communicatively connected via an internal bus. The OLP module 124 is configured to bridge optical signal-carrying services to working and protection optical channels, and may, for example, be a 1+1 protection channel unit. Furthermore, the OLP module 124 monitors optical power in real time and generates a loss-of-light fault signal when the optical power of the working and protection optical channels falls below a set threshold. The fault signal is then reported to the FSM 122.

[0038] State machine FSM 122 receives all raw electrical layer fault information (also referred to herein as first fault information) and corresponding identification information from all OT cards (e.g., including OT 110) associated with multiple protection groups, and maps this fault information to the corresponding alarm level (first alarm level) for the corresponding protection group. When state machine FSM 122 receives optical layer fault information (also referred to herein as second fault information) from OLP module 124, it similarly maps this fault information to the corresponding alarm level (second alarm level) for the corresponding protection group. State machine FSM 122 then performs an alarm evaluation based on the obtained first alarm level and / or second alarm level, and generates an action instruction for optical channel switching based on the evaluation results. In some cases, state machine FSM 122 may also generate new state requests and switching action instructions based on local commands (e.g., manual switching, forced switching, etc.) and protection mode.

[0039] The state machine FSM122 can send the generated action indication to the OLP module 124. In response to the received action indication, the OLP module 124 can quickly perform the optical channel switching operation between the main optical channel and the protection optical channel, thereby reducing or eliminating the adverse impact of the fault on the service and improving the reliability of the OTN / DCI network.

[0040] The above schematically describes the structure of the optical channel collaborative protection system and the functions of each component. It should be noted that one or more of the OT processor 114 and the finite state machine FSM 122 can be implemented in hardware, such as an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), or other programmable logic devices. It is understood that one or more of the above modules can also be software modules or programs that implement corresponding functions or actions when executed by the central processing unit (CPU), and this application does not limit this.

[0041] Figure 3 An example process 300 of the optical channel protection method provided by the present application is shown, which can be performed by, for example, Figure 2The finite state machine FSM 122 is shown to execute. In one embodiment, the process 300 can be repeatedly executed to perform optical channel protection processing on networks such as OTN / DCI in real time.

[0042] like Figure 3 As shown, the process 300 starts at step 302. The finite state machine FSM 122 first determines, based on the configuration information of the OTN / DCI network, whether to refer to the fault information of the electrical layer to issue an optical channel switching instruction during the monitoring of the network operation.

[0043] In one embodiment, this configuration information may be related to the optical layer protection mode of the OTN / DCI network and may be configured by a network administrator. For optical channel protection (OCHP), the configuration information (SDEN) may be set to 1, indicating that FSM 122 will reference the first (electrical layer) fault information to implement coordinated electrical and optical layer protection. Specifically, in step 304a, FSM 122 may enable alarm evaluation based on the first fault information and generate an optical channel switching action instruction based on the evaluation results. On the other hand, for optical multiplex section protection (OMSP) or optical line section protection (OLP), in step 304b, FSM 122 may enable independent optical layer protection. Specifically, even if electrical layer fault information is received from OT 110, this fault information is not included in FSM 122's request processing. FSM 122 will only perform alarm evaluation and issue switching instructions based on the optical layer fault information received from OLP module 124.

[0044] Through configuration information, the disclosed embodiments can support various application scenarios such as OCHP, OMSP, and OLP, thereby meeting the optical path protection needs of various customers. In particular, in OCHP scenarios, even if the optical signal's optical power does not reach the switching threshold, but the downstream OT card continues to experience bit errors and forward error correction (FEC) cannot effectively compensate for the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), the disclosed embodiments can trigger optical channel switching, thereby improving the reliability of optical transmission networks such as OTN / DCI.

[0045] For step 306, the FSM 122 may receive fault information in the optical transmission network.

[0046] In one embodiment, the fault information may be first fault information associated with the electrical layer of the optical transmission network. Figure 2 The FSM 122 may receive a fault message from the OT 110 through the data communication module 200 . The fault message includes the first fault information detected by the DCO module 112 and a physical channel identifier associated with the OT 110 .

[0047] Figure 4 FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of the structure of a fault message provided by this application. Figure 4 As shown, the fault message may adopt the frame format of a virtual local area network (VLAN). In one embodiment, it may include the following fields: destination MAC address (DA), source MAC address (SA), VLAN tag (Tag), VLAN identifier (VLAN ID), physical channel identifier, fault message content, and frame check sequence (FCS). As an example and not a limitation, the tag protocol identifier (TPID) in the VLAN tag takes a value of, for example, 0x8100, the VLAN identifier is the same identifier shared by all OT / OLP cards in the protection group, the ETH type indicates a specific Ethernet frame type, the physical channel identifier (ID) is associated with the OT card and is used to identify the electrical layer module from which the fault message originates, and the fault message content indicates the type of the original fault detected.

[0048] The physical channel identifier may include one or more of the OT card's shelf ID, slot ID, and port ID. The shelf ID and slot ID respectively indicate the OT card's shelf number and slot number in the OTN device. By including the shelf ID, the present embodiment can support a single-shelf electrical-optical layer collaborative protection mode (i.e., OT 110 and OLP 120 are located in the same shelf), as well as a collaborative protection mode across multiple shelves (i.e., OT 110 and OLP 120 are located in different shelves). Regarding the port ID, when there are multiple DCO ports in the OT card, the port ID may correspond to the number of the DCO port that detected the electrical layer fault information.

[0049] The first fault information may include fault information such as loss of signal (LOS), loss of frame (LOF), loss of multiframe (LOM), alarm indication signal (AIS), and threshold crossing alarm (TCA). It should be understood that this embodiment is not limited to this, and any detected fault caused by the electrical layer may be used as the first fault information and reported to FSM 122. In one embodiment, the first fault information may use a field of a specific length (e.g., 2 bytes) to indicate the original fault type. By analyzing the received original fault information, FSM 122 can determine the root cause of the optical line switching.

[0050] In addition to the first fault information related to the electrical layer, in some embodiments, the FSM 122 may also receive second fault information associated with the optical layer of the OTN / DCI network from the OLP module 124. For example, when the optical power drops below a preset threshold value due to fiber breakage, degradation, flash breakage, and jitter, the OLP module 124 can detect the optical layer fault and report the corresponding fault information to the FSM 122 in a timely manner.

[0051] Generally speaking, when a fault occurs in the optical layer of a network device, the electrical layer may also detect the fault at the same time, that is, FSM122 will receive the first fault information and the second fault information. In this case, FSM 122 can determine the optical channel switching request based on the priority of the two, which will be described in detail later.

[0052] return Figure 3 In response to receiving the first fault information and / or the second fault information, FSM 122 may perform an alarm evaluation based on the received fault information in step 308. The fault information includes all detected raw fault information, such as an electrical layer fault detected by a DCO in a single-rack OT, an electrical layer fault detected by a DCO in multiple-rack OTs, and an optical power fault detected by an OLP module.

[0053] In one embodiment, FSM 122 may map the first fault information and / or the second fault information to a corresponding first alarm level and / or second alarm level, and then determine the alarm level of the fault information based on the first alarm level and / or the second alarm level. Because optical loss is more severe than electrical faults, users desire a faster response from the optical line protection device and a switching action indication when optical loss occurs. Therefore, the priority of the first alarm level may be set lower than that of the second alarm level. For example, the first alarm level may be configured to indicate signal degrade (SD), while the second alarm level may be configured to indicate signal fail (SF).

[0054] In one embodiment, when FSM 122 receives electrical fault information from OT 110, FSM 122 assigns a signal degradation alarm level to it. When FSM 122 receives optical loss information from OLP module 124, FSM 122 assigns a signal failure alarm level to it. FSM 122 may subsequently receive electrical fault information, but because signal failure has a higher priority than signal degradation, FSM 122 does not change its alarm level.

[0055] In step 310 , based on the evaluation result determined in step 308 , the FSM 122 may generate an action indication for optical channel switching.

[0056] In one embodiment, FSM 122 may first determine the switching status of a protection group of the optical transport network (OTN / DCI) based on the evaluation results, and then generate an action instruction for optical channel switching based on the current request of the protection group and the determined switching status. The protection group includes the working optical channels and protection optical channels of the network.

[0057] In one embodiment, the current main optical channel (also called the active channel) can be one of a working optical channel and a protection optical channel. During data communication using the current working optical channel, in response to fault information being detected at the optical / electrical layer, FSM 122 can directly determine the protection group's transition state based on the alarm level of the fault information. For example, upon receiving the first fault information, the new transition state / request can be determined as signal degraded (SD). Upon receiving the second fault information, or both the second fault information and the first fault information, the new transition state / request can be determined as signal fail (SF).

[0058] In one embodiment, the current request and determined conversion state of the protection group may inherit or follow the definition in "ITU-TG.873.1-OTN: Linear Protection". In addition to signal degradation (SD) and signal failure (SF), the current request / state (requst / state) of the protection group may also include protection lock (Lockout of Protection, LoP), forced switching (Forced Switch, FS), manual switching (Manual Switch, MS), wait to restore (WTR), do not return (DNR), no request (NR) and other states. Each request / state has a corresponding priority, among which LoP has the highest priority and NR has the lowest priority.

[0059] In one embodiment, a state transition table may be compiled in advance according to preset conversion rules. Thus, based on the current request and the determined new conversion state, an action indication for optical channel switching may be determined by querying the state transition table. The state transition table will be described in detail below.

[0060] For example, assuming that the current request / status of the protection group is no request (NR), or that the network system is operating normally on the working optical channel or the protection optical channel, when FSM 122 receives electrical layer fault information, it can determine that the new conversion state is signal degraded (SD) and can quickly generate an optical channel switching action instruction, indicating switching from the working optical channel to the protection optical channel (assuming it is currently operating on the working optical channel), or indicating switching from the protection optical channel to the working optical channel (assuming it is currently operating on the protection optical channel). In this way, the embodiments of the present application can switch optical channels even when the optical power detection is normal but the quality of the signal received by the electrical layer board has degraded, thereby improving the reliability of data communication and thereby improving the reliability of the OTN / DCI network system.

[0061] Reference Figure 1 Because the optical service in OT 110 is downstream of OLP 120, the OT card only monitors the operating status of the electrical layer where the current primary optical channel is located, and is unaware of any faults in the other standby channel. In other words, the system performs a "blind switch." For example, when FSM 122 determines that the electrical layer where the current primary optical channel is located has failed, it assumes that the other optical channel is normal after waiting for a predetermined period of time and generates an optical channel switching action instruction, causing the system to switch to the other optical channel in the hope of achieving normal operation. This may cause some problems. For example, if the OT card detects electrical layer faults in the working optical channel and the protection optical channel successively, but there are no optical layer faults, the system will experience switching oscillations, which not only seriously affects user service usage but also reduces the life cycle of the OLP module.

[0062] To avoid switching oscillation, in some embodiments, in response to the number of optical channel switching operations between the working optical channel and the protection optical channel exceeding a predetermined value within a preset time period, the FSM 122 may freeze the current switching state and action instructions of the protection group. For example, when the current request / state of the protection group is signal degradation (SD), the FSM 122 may start a predetermined oscillation timer. If the optical channel switching count exceeds a set value within the time interval specified by the timer, the FSM 122 may determine that signal degradation is detected at the corresponding OT cards during data transmission on both the working optical channel and the protection optical channel. In this case, the FSM 122 may freeze the system switching state and no longer issue new optical channel switching action instructions, thereby ending the switching oscillation.

[0063] In one embodiment, "blind switching" is within the signal degradation (SD) alarm level range. Therefore, for the freeze state (also referred to herein as the "SD-Freeze" state), its priority can be defined between the SF priority and the SD priority, that is, SF priority > SD-Freeze priority > SD priority. In one embodiment, combined with some existing requests / states defined in ITU-T G.873.1, a reasonable priority ranking for each request / state can be determined, as shown in Table 1 below:

[0064] Table 1

[0065] Request / State Priority Lock of Protection (LoP) 1 (highest) Forced Switching (FS) 2 Signal Failure (SF) 3 Signal Degradation-Freeze (SD-Freeze) 4 Signal Degradation (SD) 5 Manual Switching (MS) 6 Waiting for Recovery (WTR) 7 Do Not Return (DNR) 8 No Request (NR) 9 (lowest)

[0066] In one embodiment, after FSM 122 determines that the system has met pre-set conditions and entered the SD-Freeze state, it can notify the user to initiate an external Lock of Protection (LoP) or Forced Switch (FS) command, allowing the system to continue transmitting service data on one optical channel and exit the SD-Freeze state. In some cases, if a loss of light fault occurs on a working or protection optical channel, FSM 122 can automatically transition from SD-Freeze to the higher-priority Signal Fail (SF) state, eliminating the need for manual user intervention.

[0067] In one embodiment, a state transition table can be compiled based on the priorities of the various states / requests in Table 1 to facilitate FSM 122 generating action instructions. In this table, requests / states with relatively higher priorities can change to states with relatively lower priorities. In other words, in step 310, FSM 122 can generate an action instruction for optical channel switching based on the priorities corresponding to the current request of the protection group and the determined transition state.

[0068] FSM 122 supports both revertive and non-revertive operations. In revertive operation, normal service signals are restored to the working optical channel after the cause of the switching is eliminated. In non-revertive operation, normal service signals are allowed to remain on the protection optical channel even after the switching cause has been eliminated. Furthermore, as previously discussed, to support various application scenarios such as optical channel protection (OCHP), optical multiplex section protection (OMSP), and optical line segment protection (OLP), configuration information (SDEN) can be used to determine whether to adopt optical-layer coordinated protection or optical-layer independent protection. For example, when SDEN = 1, FSM 122 determines that the OTN / DCI network adopts the optical-layer coordinated protection mode of optical channel protection (OCHP). When SDEN = 0, FSM 122 determines that the OTN / DCI network adopts the optical-layer independent protection mode of optical multiplex section protection (OMSP) or optical line segment protection (OLP).

[0069] Therefore, it is necessary to determine four types of state transition tables. According to an embodiment of the present application, for OCHP protection mode (SDEN=1), some state transitions and corresponding action instructions can be shown in Table 2 (returnable, no APS) and Table 3 (non-returnable, no APS):

[0070] Table 2

[0071]

[0072] In Table 2, "NA" indicates that the event is not expected to occur in this state. If it does occur, the event will be ignored; "O" indicates that the request is rejected because it has the same or lower priority; "W" (work) in brackets in the protection group current state column indicates that the current main channel is the working optical channel, and "P" (protection) indicates that the current main channel is the protection optical channel. "SF-W / SF-P" in the request row indicates that signal failure (SF) occurs on the working / protection optical channel, and "SD-W / SD-P" indicates that signal degradation (SD) occurs on the working / protection optical channel; for the signal degradation-freeze (SD-Freeze) state, the nearest main channel can be selected; "→A / E 1 / F 2 / P 3 / Q 4 " indicates that the state transitions to A or E or F or P or Q if the predetermined conditions are met, where 1) if SF-W is reiterated, 2) if SF-P is reiterated, 3) if SD-W is reiterated, 4) if SD-P is reiterated.

[0073] As can be seen from Table 2, a request such as protection lock (LoP), forced switching (FS), or signal fail (SF) can clear the signal degradation-freeze (SD-Freeze) state.

[0074] Table 3

[0075]

[0076] For Optical Multiplex Section Protection (OMSP) and Optical Line Section Protection (OLP), since they use the optical layer independent protection mode, there is no signal degradation (SD) request / state. Some state transitions and corresponding action indications are shown in Table 4 (returnable, no APS) and Table 5 (non-returnable, no APS):

[0077] Table 4

[0078]

[0079] 1) If SF-W is restated, 2) If SF-P is restated.

[0080] Table 5

[0081]

[0082] 1) If SF-W is restated, 2) If SF-P is restated.

[0083] After FSM 122 generates the corresponding action indication based on the state transition table, it may send the generated action indication to the optical layer line protection module (OLP) 124 in the OTN / DCI network in step 312. In some embodiments, upon receiving the action indication, OLP 124 may execute the action indication by switching an optical switch, thereby quickly switching the optical channel to a higher-quality channel to ensure normal service operation. For application scenarios such as optical channel protection (OCHP), optical multiplex section protection (OMSP), and optical line section protection (OLP), the protection switching time can meet the ITU-T G.873.1 protection switching time requirements, for example, less than 50ms.

[0084] In order to make the above-mentioned objects, features and advantages of the present invention more obvious and easy to understand, the optical channel protection method of the present invention is exemplarily described below through some specific embodiments.

[0085] Figure 5 FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram illustrating optical channel switching protection according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application. Figure 5As shown, it is assumed that the OTN / DCI network currently operates on the working optical channel 150. Optical signal degradation occurs on the optical channel, thereby damaging or deteriorating the quality of optical communication services. However, the optical power detected by the downstream OLP module is still above the optical loss alarm threshold.

[0086] In this case, when the digital coherent optical (DCO) module in the OT 110 detects electrical layer fault information, it can send the detected original fault type information (for example, LOS, LOF, LOM, AIS, TCA, etc.) to the OT processor 114 in the OT 110. The OT processor 114 can then assemble the fault information and information such as the physical channel identifier related to the OT 110 into a fault message according to a predetermined format, and quickly send it to the processing module (for example, the finite state machine FSM 122) of the OLP 120 via the internal local area network (ILAN).

[0087] FSM 122 parses the received fault message to obtain fault information, including the rack ID, slot ID, and port ID. It then maps the fault message to the corresponding protection group's signal degradation (SD) alarm level and, accordingly, determines the protection group's switching request / state to be SD-W. Based on the protection group's current operating state of "No Request" (NR), FSM 122 determines to switch the optical channel to protection channel 160, generates a corresponding action instruction, and sends it to optical layer line protection module 124 in OLP 120, based on the state transition table shown in Table 2, for example.

[0088] In response to receiving the action instruction, the optical layer line protection module 124 may perform a corresponding action, such as switching an optical switch to switch the optical channel from a working optical channel to a protection optical channel, so that the optical communication service can be restored to normal.

[0089] Figure 6A 6B shows a schematic diagram of optical channel switching protection according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application. Figure 6A As shown, it is assumed that the OTN / DCI network currently operates on a working optical channel 150. Optical signal degradation first occurs on the optical channel, thereby damaging or deteriorating the quality of optical communication services.

[0090] and Figure 5 Similar to the illustrated embodiment, when the digital coherent optical (DCO) module in the OT 110 detects electrical layer fault information, it may send the detected raw fault type information to the OT processor 114 in the OT 110. The OT processor 114 may then generate a fault message in a predetermined format and quickly send it to the FSM 122 of the OLP 120 via the internal local area network (ILAN).

[0091] FSM 122 parses the received fault message to obtain fault information and physical channel identifiers, and maps the fault message to the corresponding protection group's signal degradation (SD) alarm level. Accordingly, it determines the protection group's switch request / status as SD-W. Based on the protection group's current working status (NR), FSM 122 generates a corresponding action instruction and sends it to the optical layer line protection module in OLP 120. In response to receiving the action instruction, the optical layer line protection module switches the optical channel from working optical channel 150 to protection optical channel 160 by switching an optical switch.

[0092] Assuming that after switching to the protection optical channel 160 , the digital coherent optical (DCO) module in the OT 110 still detects signal degradation (SD) fault information, the OT processor 114 may send the fault information to the FSM 122 of the OLP 120 .

[0093] FSM 122 evaluates the fault information and, after waiting for a predetermined time interval, determines that the switch request / status of the protection group is SD-P. Furthermore, FSM 122 may generate a corresponding action instruction to instruct the optical layer line protection module to switch the optical channel from the protection optical channel 160 to the working optical channel 150.

[0094] It can be seen that when electrical layer faults are detected successively on both the working optical channel and the protection optical channel, the FSM 122 will cycle through the above switching operations, and the protection group will cycle between the SD-W and SD-P states. Figure 6B A protection group state timing diagram is shown. For example, at time t1, the protection group switches from the NR state to the SD-W state, and at time t2, the protection group switches from the SD-W state to the SD-P state, and switching oscillation occurs, which will affect user service usage.

[0095] To this end, in this embodiment, FSM 122 may start a predetermined timer and count the number of switching times. Figure 6B As shown, if the optical channel switching count exceeds the set value within the time interval specified by the timer (t3-t2), FSM 122 can freeze the conversion state of the protection group, that is, determine that the protection group enters the SD-Freeze state, and it will no longer issue new optical channel switching action instructions. The OTN / DCI network system only transmits service data on the optical channel in the frozen state.

[0096] Figure 7 FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram illustrating optical channel switching protection according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application. Figure 7 As shown, it is assumed that the OTN / DCI network currently operates on a working optical channel 150, and optical signal loss occurs on the optical channel, thereby damaging the quality of optical communication services.

[0097] According to one embodiment, the optical layer line protection module 124 in the OLP 120 detects optical layer loss of signal (LOS) fault information and sends it to the processing module FSM 122 of the OLP 120 .

[0098] Upon receiving the fault information, FSM 122 may map the fault information to a signal fail (SF) alarm level and, accordingly, determine that the protection group's switch request / state is SF-W. Based on the protection group's current operating state of "No Request" (NR), FSM 122 may determine that the optical channel should be switched to protection channel 160, based on the state transition table shown in Table 2, for example. FSM 122 may also generate a corresponding action instruction and send it to the optical layer line protection module.

[0099] In response to receiving the action instruction, the optical layer line protection module may perform corresponding actions, such as switching the optical channel from the working optical channel to the protection optical channel 160 by switching the optical switch, so that the optical communication service can return to normal.

[0100] In this embodiment, the optical layer fault will be transmitted to the electrical layer after a period of time. That is, after waiting for a certain period of time, FSM 122 will also receive a fault signal with a signal degradation (SD) alarm level from OT 110. However, since the priority of SD is lower than SF, FSM 122 can ignore the corresponding request.

[0101] Figure 8 FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of optical channel switching protection according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application. Figure 8 As shown, assume that an OTN / DCI network currently operates on a working optical channel 150. Electrical relay equipment 170 is provided on the working optical channel 150 and the protection optical channel 160 to enable long-distance transmission. Optical signal loss occurs on the working optical channel 150 upstream of the electrical relay equipment 170, thereby degrading the quality of the optical communication service.

[0102] According to one embodiment, when the OT on the upstream link of the electrical relay device 170 detects a fault defect, it may trigger the generation of an optical channel data unit alarm indication signal (ODU-AIS) and transmit this signal to the OT 110 on the downstream link. After detecting this fault signal, OT 110 may immediately assemble it into a fault message according to a predetermined format and quickly send it to the processing module FSM 122 of the downstream link OLP 120 via the internal local area network (ILAN).

[0103] FSM 122 parses the received fault message to obtain fault information, including the rack ID, slot ID, and port ID. It then maps the fault message to the corresponding protection group's signal degradation (SD) alarm level and, accordingly, determines the protection group's switch request / state to be SD-W. Based on the protection group's current operating state of "No Request" (NR), FSM 122 determines to switch the optical channel to protection channel 160 according to a predefined state transition table, generates a corresponding action instruction, and sends the instruction to the optical layer line protection module in OLP 120.

[0104] In response to receiving the action instruction, the optical layer line protection module may perform a corresponding switching action, such as switching an optical switch to switch the optical channel from a working optical channel to a protection optical channel, so that the optical communication service can be restored to normal.

[0105] Figure 9 FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram illustrating optical channel switching protection according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application. Figure 9 As shown in the figure, assuming that the transmission auto-optimization feature is used in the OTN / DCI network, this will cause a temporary mismatch in configuration information or profiles at both ends of the network. Due to the different profiles from one end of the network, the OT 110 at the other end of the network may detect electrical layer fault information, but the OLP 120 at the other end of the network will not detect the optical layer fault.

[0106] According to one embodiment, when the OT 110 detects electrical layer fault information, it may send the information to the FSM 122 of the OLP 120 via an internal local area network (ILAN).

[0107] After evaluating the received fault message, FSM 122 determines that the protection group's switch request / state is SD-W. Based on the protection group's current working state (NR), FSM 122 generates a corresponding action instruction and sends it to the optical layer line protection module in OLP 120. In response to receiving the action instruction, the optical layer line protection module switches the optical channel from the working optical channel to the protection optical channel 160 by switching the optical switch.

[0108] After switching to protection optical channel 160, OT 110 will detect electrical fault information because the configuration files at both ends of the network may still differ. OT 110 may send this fault information to FSM 122. FSM 122 evaluates this fault information and, after waiting for a predetermined time interval, determines that the switch request / status of the protection group is SD-P. Furthermore, FSM 122 may generate a corresponding action instruction to instruct the optical layer line protection module to switch the optical channel from protection optical channel 160 to working optical channel 150.

[0109] and Figure 6A The situation shown is similar, in which the protection group switches between the SD-W and SD-P states. Similarly, if the optical channel switching count exceeds a set value within a predetermined time interval, FSM 122 can freeze the protection group's transition state and action indication, confirming the entry into the SD-Freeze state.

[0110] Figure 10 FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram illustrating optical channel switching protection according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application. Figure 10 As shown, it is assumed that the OTN / DCI network currently operates on a working optical channel 150, wherein an electrical relay device 170 is provided on the working optical channel 150 and the protection optical channel 160. Optical signal loss occurs on the working optical channel 150 located on the upstream link of the electrical relay device 170, thereby degrading the quality of the optical communication service.

[0111] According to one embodiment, the OT on the upstream link of electrical relay device 170 detects a fault and triggers an automatic laser shutdown (ALS). After the laser transmitting the optical signal is shut down, the optical layer line protection module in the downstream link OLP 120 detects an optical layer loss of signal (LOS) fault and sends it to the processing module FSM 122 of OLP 120.

[0112] Upon receiving the fault information, FSM 122 maps the fault information to a signal fail (SF) alarm level and, accordingly, determines that the protection group's switch request / state is SF-W. Based on the protection group's current working state of "no request" (NR), FSM 122 determines that the optical channel should be switched to protection optical channel 160 according to a preconfigured state transition table. It then generates a corresponding action instruction and sends it to the optical layer line protection module.

[0113] In response to receiving the action instruction, the optical layer line protection module may perform corresponding actions, such as switching the optical channel from the working optical channel to the protection optical channel 160 by switching the optical switch, so that the optical communication service can return to normal.

[0114] Figure 11 FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram illustrating optical channel switching protection according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application. Figure 11 As shown, electrical relay equipment 170 is provided on the working optical channel 150 and the protection optical channel 160. Assume that the OTN / DCI network currently operates on the working optical channel 150 and optical signal degradation occurs on the optical channel, thereby damaging or deteriorating the quality of optical communication services.

[0115] In some cases, the electrical relay device 170 does not trigger any action to the downstream link, and the optical power detected by the downstream OLP module is also above the optical loss alarm threshold. Figure 5 Similarly, the digital coherent optical (DCO) module in the OT 110 can detect electrical layer fault information and send the detected raw fault type information to the OT processor 114 in the OT 110. The OT processor 114 can then assemble the fault information and information such as the physical channel identifier related to the OT 110 into a fault message according to a predetermined format, and quickly send it to the FSM 122 of the OLP 120 via the internal local area network (ILAN).

[0116] FSM 122 parses the received fault message to obtain fault information, including the rack ID, slot ID, and port ID. It then maps the fault message to the corresponding protection group's signal degradation (SD) alarm level and, accordingly, determines the protection group's switch request / state to be SD-W. Based on the protection group's current operating state of "No Request" (NR), FSM 122 determines to switch the optical channel to protection optical channel 160 according to a preconfigured state transition table. It then generates a corresponding action instruction and sends it to the optical layer line protection module in OLP 120.

[0117] In response to receiving the action instruction, the optical layer line protection module may perform a corresponding action, such as switching the optical switch to switch the optical channel from the working optical channel to the protection optical channel, so that the optical communication service can be restored to normal.

[0118] Figure 12 FIG. 1 is a schematic functional block diagram of an optical channel protection device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application. It will be understood that Figure 12 The functional blocks shown may be implemented by hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software to perform the relevant operations described herein, and Figure 12 The functional blocks shown can be combined and integrated into one functional block, or divided into sub-blocks to implement the principles of the present application described above. Therefore, the description here also supports feasible combinations, divisions, or further definitions of the various functional blocks.

[0119] Reference Figure 12 The optical channel protection device 400 may include a message receiving module 410, an alarm assessment module 420, an action indication generating module 430, and an action indication sending module 440. The message receiving module 410 may be configured to receive a first fault message from an electrical layer module in an OTN / DCI network. The first fault message includes first fault information associated with the electrical layer and a physical channel identifier associated with the electrical layer module. In one embodiment, the message receiving module 410 may also be configured to receive second fault information associated with the optical layer from an optical layer module in the OTN / DCI network.

[0120] The alarm evaluation module 420 may be configured to, in response to receiving fault information in the optical transmission network, perform alarm evaluation based on the fault information. The fault information may include at least one of first fault information and second fault information.

[0121] In some embodiments, performing an alarm assessment based on the fault information may include: mapping the first fault information and / or the second fault information to a corresponding first alarm level and / or second alarm level; and determining the alarm level of the fault information based on the first alarm level and / or the second alarm level.

[0122] In some embodiments, the priority of the first alarm level is lower than the priority of the second alarm level.

[0123] In some embodiments, the first alarm level is configured to indicate signal degradation (SD), and the second alarm level is configured to indicate signal failure (SF).

[0124] The action indication generating module 430 may be configured to generate an action indication of optical channel switching based at least on the evaluation result.

[0125] In some embodiments, based on the result of the evaluation, generating an action indication of optical channel switching includes: determining a conversion state of a protection group of the optical transport network (OTN / DCI) based on the result of the evaluation; and generating an action indication of optical channel switching based on a current request of the protection group and the determined new conversion state.

[0126] In some embodiments, the action indication generating module 430 may also be configured to freeze the current conversion state and action indication of the protection group in response to the number of optical channel switching between the working optical channel and the protection optical channel exceeding a predetermined value within a preset time.

[0127] The action indication sending module 440 may be configured to send the action indication to the optical layer line protection module in the optical transmission network.

[0128] In some embodiments, the optical channel protection device 400 may be further configured to enable alarm evaluation based on the first fault information according to configuration information of the optical transmission network, and generate an action indication for optical channel switching based on a result of the evaluation.

[0129] Although not shown, the optical channel protection device 400 may further include other functional components or modules such as a message parsing module and a timer, so as to appropriately process the received fault information to facilitate triggering of protection operations.

[0130] Figure 13FIG. 5 shows a structural block diagram of a network device 500 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application. The network device 500 may be implemented as the optical channel protection device 400 described above. Figure 13 As shown, the network device 500 may include one or more processors 510 , one or more memories 520 , and one or more network interfaces 530 , which may be communicatively connected to each other via a bus system 540 .

[0131] The processor 510 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a general-purpose processor, a controller, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components, or any combination thereof. The processor 510 may execute instructions in the memory 520 and / or exchange data therewith, thereby controlling other components coupled via the bus 540 to operate in coordination and execute the methods, steps, or functions described above.

[0132] The memory 520 may include various forms of storage media or be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, such as volatile and / or non-volatile memory. Volatile memory may include, but is not limited to, random access memory (RAM), cache memory, etc. Non-volatile memory may include, but is not limited to, read-only memory (ROM), hard disk, flash memory, etc. The term "non-volatile" in this document is a definition of the medium itself (i.e., tangible rather than a signal), rather than a definition of the persistence of data storage (e.g., RAM or ROM). In addition, at least one memory 520 may include, but is not limited to, electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared or semiconductor systems, devices, components, or any combination of the former.

[0133] The memory 520 may include computer instructions 522 , which may be executed by the processor 510 , so that the processor 510 can control other components coupled via the bus 540 to operate in coordination and perform the methods, steps, or functions described above related to the optical channel protection device 400 .

[0134] The network interface 530 may be a device such as a receiving circuit, a receiver, or an I / O interface that has the function of receiving and sending network data.

[0135] According to exemplary embodiments of the present invention, any one of the (at least one) processor, (at least one) memory and (at least one) interface, and any one of the units / devices shown may be implemented as separate modules, chips, chipsets, circuits, etc., or one or more of them may be respectively implemented as a common module, chip, chipset, circuit, etc.

[0136] Some example embodiments also provide computer program code or instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, can cause a device or apparatus to perform the above-described processes. The computer program code for performing the processes of the example embodiments can be written in any known or future-developed programming language, such as Java, C++, C, and Assembler. The computer program code can be provided to one or more processors or controllers of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, or other programmable data processing device so that when the program code is executed by the processor or controller, the functions / operations specified in the flowchart and / or block diagram are implemented. The program code can be executed entirely on a local computing device, partially on a local computing device, as a stand-alone software package, partially on a local computing device and partially on a remote computing device, or entirely on a remote computing device or server.

[0137] Some example embodiments also provide a computer program product or computer-readable medium having computer program code or instructions stored therein, which, when executed by a processor, causes the optical channel protection device to perform the processing methods, steps, or functions described above. A computer-readable medium can be any tangible medium that can contain or store a program for use by or in conjunction with an instruction execution system, device, or apparatus. A machine-readable medium can be a machine-readable signal medium or a machine-readable storage medium. A machine-readable medium can include, but is not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples of machine-readable storage media would include an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer floppy disk, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

[0138] The basic principles of the present application have been described above in conjunction with the embodiments. However, it should be noted that the advantages, strengths, and effects mentioned in this application are merely illustrative and not restrictive, and it should not be assumed that these advantages, strengths, and effects are required of each embodiment of this application. In addition, the specific details disclosed above are merely illustrative and facilitating understanding, and are not restrictive. The above details do not limit this application to being implemented by adopting the above specific details.

[0139] As used in this application, the terms "component," "module," "system," and the like are intended to represent computer-related hardware, software, firmware, specialized circuits or logic, general-purpose hardware or controllers or other computing devices, or some combination thereof. Furthermore, throughout the specification and claims, modifiers such as "first," "second," and the like are generally intended to distinguish between different elements, operations, and the like, rather than to emphasize any importance or ordering.

[0140] Although certain embodiments have been described, these embodiments have been provided by way of example and are not intended to limit the scope of the present application. Various modifications, substitutions, and changes may be made to the form of the methods and systems described herein without departing from the spirit of the present application. Therefore, it should be understood that the appended claims and their equivalents are intended to cover such forms or modifications that fall within the scope and spirit of the various embodiments of the present application.

Claims

1. A method for protecting an optical channel, comprising: In response to receiving fault information in an optical transmission network, performing an alarm evaluation based on the fault information, the fault information including first fault information associated with an electrical layer of the optical transmission network; as well as Based at least on a result of the evaluation, an action instruction for optical channel switching is generated.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein The fault information further includes second fault information associated with an optical layer of the optical transmission network.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein: Performing alarm evaluation based on the fault information includes: Mapping the first fault information and / or the second fault information to a corresponding first alarm level and / or a second alarm level; and An alarm level of the fault information is determined based on the first alarm level and / or the second alarm level.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein: The priority of the first alarm level is lower than the priority of the second alarm level.

5. The method according to claim 3 or 4, wherein: The first alarm level is configured to indicate signal degradation (SD), and the second alarm level is configured to indicate signal failure (SF).

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, further comprising: A first fault message is received from an electrical layer module in the optical transmission network, where the first fault message includes the first fault information and a physical channel identifier associated with the electrical layer module.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, further comprising: According to the configuration information of the optical transmission network, an alarm evaluation is enabled based on the first fault information, and an action indication of the optical channel switching is generated based on a result of the evaluation.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein At least based on the evaluation result, generating an action indication for optical channel switching includes: determining a switching state of a protection group of the optical transmission network based on a result of the evaluation; and An action instruction for optical channel switching is generated based on the current request of the protection group and the determined new conversion state.

9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising: In response to the number of optical channel switching between the working optical channel and the protection optical channel exceeding a predetermined value within a preset time, the current switching state and action indication of the protection group are frozen.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, further comprising: The action indication is sent to an optical layer line protection module in the optical transmission network.

11. An optical channel protection device, comprising: at least one processor; as well as at least one memory storing instructions, wherein when the instructions are executed by the at least one processor, the optical channel protection device is caused to at least execute: In response to receiving fault information in an optical transmission network, performing an alarm evaluation based on the fault information, the fault information including first fault information associated with an electrical layer of the optical transmission network; as well as Based at least on a result of the evaluation, an action instruction for optical channel switching is generated.

12. The device according to claim 11, wherein The fault information further includes second fault information associated with an optical layer of the optical transmission network.

13. The device according to claim 11 or 12, wherein: Performing alarm evaluation based on the fault information includes: Mapping the first fault information and / or the second fault information to a corresponding first alarm level and / or a second alarm level; and An alarm level of the fault information is determined based on the first alarm level and / or the second alarm level.

14. The device according to claim 13, wherein The priority of the first alarm level is lower than the priority of the second alarm level.

15. The device according to claim 13 or 14, wherein The first alarm level is configured to indicate signal degradation (SD), and the second alarm level is configured to indicate signal failure (SF).

16. The device according to any one of claims 11 to 15, wherein: When the instruction is executed by the at least one processor, the optical channel protection device is caused to further execute at least: A first fault message is received from an electrical layer module in the optical transmission network, where the first fault message includes the first fault information and a physical channel identifier associated with the electrical layer module.

17. The method according to any one of claims 11 to 16, wherein: When the instruction is executed by the at least one processor, the optical channel protection device is caused to further execute at least: According to the configuration information of the optical transmission network, an alarm evaluation is enabled based on the first fault information, and an action indication of the optical channel switching is generated based on a result of the evaluation.

18. The device according to any one of claims 11 to 17, wherein: At least based on the evaluation result, generating an action indication for optical channel switching includes: determining a switching state of a protection group of the optical transmission network based on a result of the evaluation; and An action instruction for optical channel switching is generated based on the current request of the protection group and the determined new conversion state.

19. The device according to claim 18, wherein When the instruction is executed by the at least one processor, the optical channel protection device is caused to further execute at least: In response to the number of optical channel switching between the working optical channel and the protection optical channel exceeding a predetermined value within a preset time, the current switching state and action indication of the protection group are frozen.

20. The device according to any one of claims 11 to 19, wherein When the instruction is executed by the at least one processor, the optical channel protection device is caused to further execute at least: The action indication is sent to an optical layer line protection module in the optical transmission network.

21. An optical channel protection device, comprising: an alarm evaluation module, configured to, in response to receiving fault information in an optical transmission network, perform an alarm evaluation based on the fault information, the fault information including first fault information associated with an electrical layer of the optical transmission network; as well as The action indication generating module is configured to generate an action indication of optical channel switching based at least on the evaluation result.

22. A computer-readable medium storing instructions, wherein when the instructions are executed by at least one processor in an optical channel protection device, the optical channel protection device is caused to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 10.

23. A computer program product comprising instructions, which, when executed by at least one processor in an optical channel protection device, cause the optical channel protection device to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 10.

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