Investigating the prospect of leveraging digital twins to enhance the reliability of optical networks: A survey

As optical networks are becoming more dynamic, flexible, and sophisticated, traditional network management approaches are becoming less effective. These methods often lack the ability to detect faults at an early stage, predict performance degradation, and efficiently optimize network operation under changing network conditions. This is mainly because traditional approaches depend on reactive fault handling, static models, and periodic monitoring mechanisms. Digital Twins (DTs) of optical networks are recognized as a favorable solution for intelligent optical network management, capable of overcoming these challenges. This survey investigates how DTs can help enhance reliability in optical networks. The paper discusses the main factors that affect reliability in modern optical networks, along with the limitations of traditional management approaches. Then, the capabilities of DTs are explored to understand how they can overcome these challenges through monitoring, modeling, prediction, and automated management. Finally, existing research works are reviewed from a reliability perspective to show how DTs can support reliable optical network communication.