Survivable Optical WDM Networks investigates different approaches for designing and operating an optical network with the objectives that (1) more connections can be carried by a given network leading to more revenue and (2) connections can recover faster in case of failures leading to better services. Different networks wavelength routed WDM networks wavelength routed WDM networks with sub wavelength granularity grooming and data over next generation SONET/SDH over WDM networks are covered. Different approaches are proposed to explore every aspect of a protection scheme such as (1) Protection granularitya. At wavelength granularityb. At sub wavelength granularity(2) Protection entitya. Path protectionb. Sub path protectionc. Segment protection(3) Routinga. Single path routingb. Multi path routing