Techniques for optical packet switching and optical burst switching

Wavelength-division multiplexing appears to be the solution of choice for providing a faster networking infrastructure that can meet the explosive growth of the Internet. Several different technologies have been developed so far for the transfer of data over WDM. We survey two new technologies which are still in the experimental stage-optical packet switching and optical burst switching-and comment on their suitability for transporting IP traffic     

Dual-fiber optical burst switching network: A novel architecture for metropolitan area networks

Fiber optic rings are widely deployed in metropolitan area networks (MAN). These rings currently employ architectures and protocols that are neither optimized for nor scalable to the network demand. Therefore, emerging technologies are being pushed to replace the traditional architectures. Among these technologies, optical burst switching (OBS) is an effective and promising technology. In this study, a novel architecture, dual-fiber OBS (DOBS), is proposed. This architecture has similar functions to those of fiber delay lines, partial wavelength conversion and deflection routing. A theoretical model is developed to evaluate the performance of DOBS, which is compared with single-fiber and simple two-fiber schemes by introducing them into ring and mesh MAN in simulations. The results reveal that DOBS can exponentially reduce the burst dropping probability. Moreover, since DOBS can be implement using commercially available devices and dark fibers, it is commercially viable in metro networks.     

可编程光缓存器在OBS中的应用

对之前报道的两种可编程光缓存器结构在光突发交换网中的应用进行了仿真研究.构建了仿真平台,选取支持QoS的JET协议,提出了一种简单的资源调度算法,在相同网络流量的情况下,对比研究了采用两种可编程光缓存器和固定时间光缓存器时,OBS网络在丢包率和时延等方面的差异.仿真结果表明,两种可编程光缓存器在以上性能方面有良好的优越性.因此该可编程光缓存器可较好地解决光突发交换网突发包的冲突问题.     

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.     

Hierarchical time-sliced optical burst switching

To overcome the need for large buffers to store contending bursts in optical burst switched (OBS) networks, a recent variant called time-sliced OBS (TSOBS) suggested that bursts be sliced and spread across multiple frames of fixed-length time-slots. Since TSOBS is rigid in its frame structure, this paper generalises TSOBS to allow a hierarchy of frames. Termed hierarchical TSOBS (HiTSOBS), this scheme supports several granularities of rates, and permits multiple traffic classes with different loss-delay requirements to efficiently share the network. Our contributions are as follows: first, we present an architecture for HiTSOBS and offer it as a viable option for the realisation of flexible and cost-effective OBS networks. Second, we develop mathematical analysis to study the loss and delay performance of the proposed HiTSOBS system. Finally, we present simulation results that captures these loss-delay tradeoff values. Our HiTSOBS architecture gives network operators the freedom to choose the right mix of traffic with desired loss-delay requirements to coexist in the network.     

OBSns:一种OBS通用仿真平台的设计

光突发交换(OBS)是当前全光交换网络技术的研究热点之一,而仿真是OBS研究的一种重要手段。为了给研究者提供方便,同时实现各种研究结果的对比,开发了一种通用的OBS网络仿真平台--OBSns。OBSns以网络仿真工具NS-2为基础,对突发数据传输采用虚拟化的方法,实现了OBS网络的关键元素如突发组装、突发控制分组生成和传输、突发调度等等。同时OBSns是开放的,其各个元素都可以替换,从而为新算法和协议的研究提供了便利。     

Labeled optical burst switching for IP-over-WDM integration

The rapid pace of development in both Internet applications and emerging optical technologies is bringing about fundamental changes in networking philosophies. Key trends are the emergence of dynamic wavelength provisioning and a corresponding reduction in wavelength provisioning timescales. As this transition continues, the current use of the wavelength-routing paradigm for carrying bursty Internet traffic will likely suffer from various shortcomings associated with circuit-switched networks. Meanwhile, optical packet switching technology is still facing significant cost and technological hurdles. Optical burst switching, or OBS, which represents a balance between circuit and packet switching, has opened up some exciting new dimensions in optical networking. This article describes the OBS paradigm, and also proposes the use of labeled OBS, or LOBS, as a natural control and provisioning solution under the ubiquitous IP multiprotocol label switching framework     

A unified study of burst assembly in optical burst switching networks

This article presents a comprehensive study of burst assembly in optical burst switching (OBS) networks. This investigation aims to provide a unified study of burst assembly algorithms. After analyses of conventional assembly algorithms, we present an adaptive burst assembly algorithm: data-length time-lag product assembly algorithm. Numerical results show that the proposed algorithm takes the real-time traffic state into account to adapt burst length and its injected intervals. It obtains a more acceptable performance. Moreover, we investigated the impact of burst assembly applied at the edge of OBS networks. We analyze the Hurst parameter of the input traffic to the output traffic that results from the burst assembly. Two formulas are presented to describe changes of the Hurst parameter. Theoretical results are validated through extensive simulations in time-based, length-based, and adaptive assembly algorithms, respectively.     

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网络中的虚拟突发交换技术

针对由于网络复杂度提高,突发数据在预留时冲突可能性增大,导致OBS网络性能下降的情况,提出OBS网络中的虚拟突发交换技术和相应的实现技术。其汇聚机制是基于服务类别的虚拟汇聚,调度策略对应有两种：非抢占调度策略和抢占调度策略。利用虚拟突发交换技术有利于减少信道碎片,提高链路利用率,提供可靠的QOS保证。用OPNET系统仿真工具进行验证,结果表明：虚拟突发交换与OBS传统交换方式相比有较高网络链路的利用率,较少的控制分组和数据突发的丢包率,增加了整个网络的吞吐量。     

解决光突发交换竞争的新模型

针对光突发中的竞争问题，提出了一种分割反馈模型，相应地建立了数学分析模型，并进行了仿真与性能分析。结果表明这一模型是解决光突发交换中竞争问题的一个较佳方案。     

An experimental study of an optical burst switching network based on wavelength-selective optical switches

In this article we report the system structure and test results of an experimental optical burst switching network with three edge router's and one core node. Wavelength-selective switches developed for this system and their characteristics are depicted. The implementation and performance of our new scheme for the just-in-time protocol are described. We also report experimental results of FTP and VOD services on this system. Some parameters, including traffic rate, average burst data length, and assembly time, are studied.     

A novel transfer mode to reduce burst loss rate for optical burst switching networks

A crucial issue in optical burst switching (OBS) networks is burst loss caused by resource contention. As a result, many methods are currently being proposed to reduce burst loss rate. These methods can be summed up into two categories: burst scheduling algorithms and contention resolutions. Both categories of methods can reduce burst loss rate to a certain degree. However, to make OBS to become a viable solution, the burst loss rate needs to be further reduced. Furthermore, almost all methods ignore the fact that an unfortunately scheduled, locally generated single-hop burst could block a number of future incoming transit bursts, though the burst just travels to its next downstream node. This phenomenon becomes more evident when links are heavily loaded in mesh OBS networks. To eliminate contention caused by single-hop traffic completely, this paper proposes a novel transfer mode called packet calking by differentiating between single-hop traffic from multihop traffic for OBS networks. An analysis model is developed to evaluate the performance of packet calking. Theoretical results are validated through extensive simulations in both ring and mesh networks. These results show that packet calking outperforms the transfer mode without packet calking in terms of burst loss rate and link utilization.     

一种新型光交换技术:光码标签突发包交换

一种新型光交换技术-光码标签突发包交换技术。该技术是光突发包交换与光码标签交换的结合体,具有两者的共同优点,是一种性能优良的光交换技术。本文首先介绍了该技术的原理,然后给出了网络节点功能结构的设计,最后讨论了该技术的性能。     

光突发包交换关键技术概述

光突发包交换(OBS)技术是近年来出现的一种新型光交换技术，它结合了波长路由和光分组交换的优点，是一种未来一段时间内交换网络比较理想的过渡方案，为此介绍了OBS的基本原理，讨论了OBS中偏置时间的设置和交换信道的调度等关键技术，并就OBS的特点及仍需解决的问题作了总结。     

An introduction to optical burst switching

Optical burst switching is a promising solution for all-optical WDM networks. It combines the benefits of optical packet switching and wavelength routing while taking into account the limitations of the current all-optical technology. In OBS, the user data is collected at the edge of the network, sorted based on a destination address, and grouped into variable sized bursts. Prior to transmitting a burst, a control packet is created and immediately sent toward the destination in order to set up a bufferless optical path for its corresponding burst. After an offset delay time, the data burst itself is transmitted without waiting for a positive acknowledgment from the destination node. The OBS framework has been widely studied in the past few years because it achieves high traffic throughput and high resource utilization. However, despite the OBS trademarks such as dynamic connection setup or strong separation between data and control, there are many differences in the published OBS architectures. In this article we summarize in a systematic way the main OBS design parameters and the solutions that have been proposed in the open literature.     

Concurrent enhancement of network throughput and fairness in optical burst switching environments

In this article, we propose and evaluate a preemption-based scheme for the concurrent improvement of network throughput and burst fairness in optical burst switched networks. The scheme uses a preemption weight consisting of two terms: the first term is a function of the size of the burst and the second term is the product of the hop count times the length of the lightpath of the burst. The second term is adjusted by a minimum function to prevent the problem of reverse unfairness. Extensive simulation tests showed that the application of the scheme results in higher throughput and at the same time improves the fairness coefficient. The scheme is further enhanced by combining it with a fairness-improving scheme previously proposed in the literature. Detailed performance tests are presented and analyzed.     

Demonstration of connection-oriented optical burst switching network utilising PLC and MEMS switches

The first demonstration of a connection-oriented optical burst data switching network constructed with PLC and MEMS switches employing GMPLS control is reported. Optical burst data switching in a six-node photonic network using the general switch management protocol (GSMP) is successfully, demonstrated.