TCP over optical burst-switched networks with controlled burst retransmission

For optical burst-switched (OBS) networks in which TCP is implemented at a higher layer, the loss of bursts can lead to serious degradation of TCP performance. Due to the bufferless nature of OBS, random burst losses may occur, even at low traffic loads. Consequently, these random burst losses may be mistakenly interpreted by the TCP layer as congestion in the network. The TCP sender will then trigger congestion control mechanisms, thereby reducing TCP throughput unnecessarily. In this paper, we introduce a controlled retransmission scheme in which the bursts lost due to contention in the OBS network are retransmitted at the OBS layer. The OBS retransmission scheme can reduce the burst loss probability in the OBS core network. Also, the OBS retransmission scheme can reduce the probability that the TCP layer falsely detects congestion, thereby improving the TCP throughput. We develop an analytical model for evaluating the burst loss probability in an OBS network that uses a retransmission scheme, and we also analyze TCP throughput when the OBS layer implements burst retransmission. We develop a simulation model to validate the analytical results. Simulation and analytical results show that an OBS layer with controlled burst retransmission provides up to two to three orders of magnitude improvement in TCP throughput over an OBS layer without burst retransmission. This significant improvement is primarily because the TCP layer triggers fewer time-outs when the OBS retransmission scheme is used.     

Dropping Policy with Burst Retransmission to Improve the Throughput of TCP Over Optical Burst-switched Networks

A major concern in optical burst-switched (OBS) networks is contention, which occurs when more than one bursts contend for the same data channel at the same time. Due to the bufferless nature of OBS networks, these contentions randomly occur at any degree of congestion in the network. When contention occurs at any core node, the core node drops bursts according to its dropping policy. Burst loss in OBS networks significantly degrades the throughput of TCP sources in the local access networks because current TCP congestion control mechanisms perform a slow start phase mainly due to contention rather than heavy congestion. However, there has not been much study about the impact of burst loss on the performance of TCP over OBS networks. To improve TCP throughput over OBS networks, we first introduce a dropping policy with burst retransmission that retransmits the bursts dropped due to contention, at the ingress node. Then, we extend the dropping policy with burst retransmission to drop a burst that has experienced fewer retransmissions in the event of contention at a core node in order to reduce the number of events that a TCP source enters the slow start phase due to contention. In addition, we propose to limit the number of retransmissions of each burst to prevent severe congestion. For the performance evaluation of the proposed schemes, we provide an analytic throughput model of TCP over OBS networks. Through simulations as well as analytic modeling, it is shown that the proposed dropping policy with burst retransmission can improve TCP throughput over OBS networks compared with an existing dropping policy without burst retransmission.     

Adaptive Load-Aware Congestion Control Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

Congestion control in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is crucial. In this article, we discuss congestion control and the adaptive load-aware problem for sensor nodes in WSNs. When the traffic load of a specific node exceeds its the available capacity of the node, a congestion problem occurs because of buffer memory overflow. Congestion may cause serious problems such as packet loss, the consumption of power, and low network throughput for sensor nodes. To address these problems, we propose a distributed congestion control protocol called adaptive load-aware congestion control protocol (ALACCP). The protocol can adaptively allocate the appropriate forwarding rate for jammed sensor nodes to mitigate the congestion load. Through the buffer management mechanism, the congestion index of neighboring sensor nodes, and an adjustment of the adaptive forwarding rate, the degree of congestion is alleviated markedly. The performance in allocating the forwarding rate effectively to neighboring sensor nodes also improves. The ALACCP can avoid packet loss because of traffic congestion, reduce the power consumption of nodes, and improve the network throughput. Simulation results revealed that the proposed ALACCP can effectively improve network performance and maintain the fairness of networks.     

A Novel Congestion Detection Scheme in TCP Over OBS Networks

This paper introduces a novel congestion detection scheme for high-bandwidth TCP flows over optical burst switching (OBS) networks, called statistical additive increase multiplicative decrease (SAIMD). SAIMD maintains and analyzes a number of previous round-trip time (RTTs) at the TCP senders in order to identify the confidence with which a packet loss event is due to network congestion. The confidence is derived by positioning short-term RTT in the spectrum of long-term historical RTTs. The derived confidence corresponding to the packet loss is then taken in the developed policy for TCP congestion window adjustment. We will show through extensive simulation that the proposed scheme can effectively solve the false congestion detection problem and significantly outperform the conventional TCP counterparts without losing fairness. The advantages gained in our scheme are at the expense of introducing more overhead in the SAIMD TCP senders. Based on the proposed congestion control algorithm, a throughput model is formulated, and is further verified by simulation results.      

Performance evaluation of high speed TCP over optical burst switching networks

Study of TCP performance over OBS networks has been an important problem of research lately and it was found that due to the congestion control mechanism of TCP and the inherent bursty losses in the Optical Burst Switching (OBS) network, the throughput of TCP connections degrade. On the other hand, High Speed TCP (HSTCP) was proposed as an alternative to the use of TCP in high bandwidth-delay product networks. HSTCP aggressively increases the congestion window used in TCP, when the available bandwidth is high and decreases the window cautiously in response to a congestion event. In this work, we make a thorough simulation study of HSTCP over OBS networks. While the earlier works in the literature used a linear chain of nodes as the network topology for the simulation, we use the popular 14-node NSFNET topology that represents an arbitrary mesh network in our study. We also study the performance of HSTCP over OBS for different bandwidths of access networks. We use two different cases for simulations where in the first HSTCP connections are routed on disjoint paths while in the second they contend for resources in the network links. These cases of simulations along with the mesh topology help us clearly distinguish between the congestion and contention losses in the OBS network and their effect on HSTCP throughput. For completeness of study, we also simulate TCP traffic over OBS networks in all these cases and compare its throughput with that of HSTCP. We observe that irrespective of the access network bandwidth and the burst loss rate in the network, HSTCP outperforms TCP in terms of the throughput and robustness against multiple burst losses up to the expected theoretical burst loss probability of 10⁻³.     

Fair Bandwidth Allocation in Optical Burst Switching Networks

Optical burst switching (OBS) is a promising switching technology for next-generation Internet backbone networks. One of the design challenges is how to provide fair bandwidth allocation in OBS networks; the schemes proposed for general store-and-forward IP switching networks can not be used because of the non-buffering and un-fully utilized bandwidth characteristics of OBS networks. We propose a rate fairness preemption (RFP) scheme to achieve approximately weighted max-min fair bandwidth allocation in OBS networks. We present an analysis of the burst loss probability in RFP-based OBS networks. The analysis and simulation results show that the RFP scheme provides fair bandwidth allocation in OBS networks.      

A framework of prioritized burst segmentation supporting controlled retransmission in OBS networks

In optical burst switching (OBS) networks, burst contentions in OBS core nodes may cause data loss. To reduce data loss, retransmission scheme has been applied. However, uncontrolled retransmission may increase network load significantly and data loss probability defeating the retransmission purpose. In addition, in a priority traffic existing OBS network, OBS nodes may apply different retransmission mechanisms to priorities bursts for quality-of-service (QoS) support. This study has developed a controlled retransmission scheme for prioritized burst segmentation to support QoS in OBS networks. Unlike previous works in the literature, we have set a different value to retransmission probability at each contention and propose a retransmission analytical model for burst segmentation contention resolution scheme. In addition, we have applied the proposed retransmission scheme to the prioritized burst segmentation for QoS support. We have taken into account the load at each link due to both fresh and retransmitted traffic, and have calculated the path blocking probability and byte loss probability (ByLP) for high-priority and low-priority burst to evaluate network performance. An extensive simulation has been proposed to validate our analytical model.     

光突发交换网络新型偏射路由方案研究

光突发交换(OBS)被认为是下一代光网络中的有效核心交换技术之一,设计OBS网络的最初目的之一是减小突发包丢失率.解决突发竞争的方法主要包括光缓存、波长变换、偏射路由和突发分段.提出一种改进偏射路由方案,并建立了数学模型,对改进方案的性能进行了仿真分析,结果表明改进方案能更好的提高网络整体性能.     

Hop-count fairness-aware protocols for improved bandwidth utilization in WDM burst-switched networks

In this paper, we propose and evaluate two schemes for improving bandwidth utilization in optical burst-switched (OBS) networks employing timer-based burst assembly routines. The first scheme adjusts the size of the search space for a free wavelength in optical switches using a balancing formula that promotes throughput and hop-count fairness. The formula achieves controllable increase in the size of the search space either when the size of the burst increases or when the hop count of the traveling burst increases. The second scheme proactively discards bursts at the source network access station using a dropping probability matrix that satisfies certain horizontal and vertical constraints. The matrix assigns smaller dropping probabilities to bursts with larger sizes and longer lightpaths. The results of extensive performance tests to evaluate the two schemes and compare them with previous schemes for improving fairness and throughput are presented and discussed. The results show that the two schemes improve the throughput of optical OBS networks and enhance the hop-count fairness.     

光突发交换网络的拥塞控制技术研究(本期优秀论文)

光突发交换(OBS)技术能很好地支持突发业务,有希望应用于Internet核心交换.但是,OBS网络的单向预约信令方式容易造成网络拥塞和大量的突发丢失.文章在深入研究现有的OBS网络拥塞控制策略的基础上,提出了一种新的基于速率的OBS拥塞控制策略.边缘源结点向宿结点周期性地发送和接收资源管理分组(RMP),边缘源结点根据RMP中的拥塞反馈指示了解网络中的拥塞状况,并改变突发发送速率,从而解除拥塞.     

A partial-success-rate-based resource reservation scheme for slotted OBS networks

Optical burst switching (OBS) is a promising technology for next-generation optical networks. Slotted OBS is an improved version of OBS to reduce burst loss rate, in which wavelength channels are divided into time slots. Slotted OBS has an implicit and under-used property that resources for two bursts with the same source and the same destination are interchangeable. The property further means that resource for a long-distance burst can be partially used by a short-distance burst. In this paper, we utilize the property to design a resource reservation scheme for slotted OBS networks. The scheme reserves a batch of slots every time; the specific number of slots is calculated according to number of arrived bursts and partial success rate (a newly introduced conception in this paper) at each node. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can get lower burst loss rate, comparing with the well-performing two-way signaling scheme.     

OBS网络中一种基于突发包优先级分割的可控重传方案

在光突发交换(OBS)网络中,突发包会由于竞争OBS核心节点输出端口的有限波长资源而发生冲突。突发包重传能够在一定程度上减少由于突发包在核心节点冲突而导致的数据损失,但重传次数的增加可能会加重网络负荷,反而增加数据丢失率。并且,在多业务存在的OBS网络中,重传方案需要能够实现区分服务以保证网络的服务质量(QoS)。据此,本文提出一种基于突发包优先级分割的可控重传方案,在实施优先级分割的同时,根据网络负荷赋予每次重传不同的概率,并对重传次数加以控制。最后,仿真分析了路径阻塞率和不同优先级业务的字节丢失率(ByLP,byte loss probability)性能。     

Multi-layer loss recovery in TCP over optical burst-switched networks

It is well-known that the bufferless nature of optical burst-switching (OBS) networks cause random burst loss even at low traffic loads. When TCP is used over OBS, these random losses make the TCP sender decrease its congestion window even though the network may not be congested. This results in significant TCP throughput degradation. In this paper, we propose a multi-layer loss-recovery approach with automatic retransmission request (ARQ) and Snoop for OBS networks given that TCP is used at the transport layer. We evaluate the performance of Snoop and ARQ at the lower layer over a hybrid IP-OBS network. Based on the simulation results, the proposed multi-layer hybrid ARQ + Snoop approach outperforms all other approaches even at high loss probability. We developed an analytical model for end-to-end TCP throughput and verified the model with simulation results.     

A tree-based slot allocation algorithm for loss-free slotted OBS networks

Optical burst switching (OBS) is regarded as one of the most promising switching technologies for next generation optical networks. However, the data burst contention problem is still unresolved thoroughly even though slotted OBS (SOBS) is studied as a new paradigm reducing the blocking rate. In this article, we propose a tree-based slot allocation (TSA) algorithm for loss-free SOBS networks, where the TSA algorithm originally avoids contention of the time-slots by reserving the time-slots with different time-slot positions for the source nodes, respectively. In order to manage the time-slots efficiently, we also propose an OBS superframe, which is a cyclic period and consists of multiple time-slots transmitted by the source nodes toward the same incoming port of a destination node. In addition, we attempt to optimize multiplexing of the OBS superframes to reduce wavelength consumption. On the other hand, when incoming traffic is beyond expectation, a source node may need more time-slots to prevent packet loss because of buffer overflow. For reallocation of the time-slots, we propose a flow control scheme managing some number of shared time-slots, where a control node adaptively allocates (or redeems) the time-slots to (or from) source nodes by utilizing the shared time-slots based on fluctuating traffic condition. Simulation results show that the blocking rate of the proposed TSA–OBS scheme is zero with acceptable queueing delay at moderate traffic offered loads. In addition, multiplexing optimization simulated in the 14-node NSFNET achieves a 63% reduction of wavelength consumption. Moreover, the proposed flow control scheme assisting the TSA algorithm maintains a target upper-bound of queueing delay at the source node, so that packet loss caused by buffer overflow is prevented.     

Hybrid switching and p-routing for optical burst switching networks

One promising switching technology for wavelength-division multiplexing optical networks is optical burst switching (OBS). However, there are major deficiencies of OBS. (1) The delay offset between a control message and its corresponding data burst is based on the diameter of a network. This affects network efficiency, quality-of-service, and network scalability.( 2) OBS adopts one-way resource reservation scheme, which causes frequent burst collision and, thus, burst loss. We address the above two important issues in OBS. In particular, we study how to improve the performance of delay and loss in OBS. To reduce the end-to-end delay, we propose a hybrid switching scheme. The hybrid switching is a combination of lightpath switching and OBS switching. A virtual topology design algorithm based on simulated annealing to minimize the longest shortest path through the virtual topology is presented. To minimize burst collision and loss, we propose a new routing algorithm, namely, p-routing, for OBS network. The p-routing is based on the wavelength available probability. A path that has higher available probability is less likely to drop bursts due to collision. The probability-based p-routing can reduce the volatility, randomness, and uncertainty of one-way resource reservation. Our studies show that hybrid switching and p-routing are complementary and both can dramatically improve the performance of OBS networks.     

A stochastic model for the behavior of multiple TCP NewReno sources over optical burst switching network

This work proposes a stochastic model to characterize the transmission control protocol (TCP) over optical burst switching (OBS) networks which helps to understand the interaction between the congestion control mechanism of TCP and the characteristic bursty losses in the OBS network. We derive the steady-state throughput of a TCP NewReno source by modeling it as a Markov chain and the OBS network as an open queueing network with rejection blocking. We model all the phases in the evolution of TCP congestion window and evaluate the number of packets sent and time spent in different states of TCP. We model the mixed assembly process, burst assembler and disassembler modules, and the core network using queueing theory and compute the burst loss probability and end-to-end delay in the network. We derive expression for the throughput of a TCP source by solving the models developed for the source and the network with a set of fixed-point equations. To evaluate the impact of a burst loss on each TCP flow accurately, we define the burst as a composition of per-flow-bursts (which is a burst of packets from a single source). Analytical and simulation results validate the model and highlight the importance of accounting for individual phases in the evolution of TCP congestion window.     

OBS网络中的回退竞争解决机制研究

综述了光突发交换(OBS)网络中突发包竞争产生的原因及现有几种解决方案,分析了它们各自的优缺点.提出了具有回退竞争解决功能的OBS网络核心节点功能结构及新的回退信道划分方法,并将突发包优先级运用到回退竞争解决方案中.分析结果表明运用该方法可明显降低丢包率,增大网络吞吐量.     

Priority-based offline wavelength assignment in OBS networks

Optical burst switching (OBS) is a promising technique for wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) networks. In practice, wavelength converters (WCs) are either absent or only sparsely deployed in WDM networks due to economic and technical limitations. Thus, wavelength assignment is expected to be an important component of OBS networks. In this paper, an offline wavelength assignment scheme in OBS networks without wavelength conversion capability is proposed. The key idea of the scheme is to decide the wavelength searching order of each traffic connection at edge nodes according to the wavelength priorities determined by the calculated burst loss probabilities on different wavelengths. Simulation results indicate that the proposed scheme can reduce the network-wide burst loss probability significantly compared with other schemes. It is also illustrated that the performance of the proposed scheme can be further enhanced by a larger number of wavelengths per link and a reasonable delay bound at edge nodes.     

TCP在不可靠网络环境中的性能分析及其服务质量控制

本文对TCP在拥塞丢失和非拥塞丢失同时存在的不可靠网络环境中的性能进行了理论分析,给出了TCP吞吐量,延时以及分组丢失概率的简明表达式.同时针对多个TCP连接共享一条限速链路时服务质量不均衡问题,提出了轮询丢弃策略和惩罚丢弃策略两种服务质量控制策略.仿真结果表明,轮询丢弃策略可以提高限速链路的总吞吐量,而惩罚丢弃策略可以提高TCP连接之间的公平性.     

Adaptive Rate Optimal Design for Wireless Heterogeneous Networks: Jointly Congestion Discrimination and Queue Updating

In this paper, we propose a novel rate adaptive optimization scheme for streaming media transmission over wireless heterogeneous IP networks. In the proposed adaptive scheme, through the analysis of the packet loss characteristics in wireless channel, we develop the relationship between the packet loss rates and the packet sizes. Furthermore, the scheme detects the nature of packet losses by sending large and small packets alternately, and then adopts an adaptive rate optimization strategy to decrease the network congestion and increase the network throughput. Using congestion discrimination and updating factor, the scheme can adapt to the changes of network states quickly and improve delivery quality of wireless multimedia streaming. Simulation results show that, in comparisons to the existing rate optimization algorithms, our proposed scheme offers significantly improved performance in terms of throughput and network congestion, especially when the channel quality is poor in different network topology environments.