Optical Packet and Burst Switching Technologies for the Future Photonic Internet

This paper reviews advanced optical burst switching (OBS) and optical packet switching (OPS) technologies and discusses their roles in the future photonic Internet. Discussions include optoelectronic and optical systems technologies as well as systems integration into viable network elements (OBS and OPS routers). Optical label switching (OLS) offers a unified multiple-service platform with effective and agile utilization of the available optical bandwidth in support of voice, data, and multimedia services on the Internet Protocol. In particular, OLS routers with wavelength routing switching fabrics and parallel optical labeling allow forwarding of asynchronously arriving variable-length packets, bursts, and circuits. By exploiting contention resolution in wavelength, time, and space domains, the OLS routers can achieve high throughput without resorting to a store-and-forward method associated with large buffer requirements. Testbed demonstrations employing OLS edge routers show high-performance networking in support of multimedia and data communications applications over the photonic Internet with optical packets and bursts switched directly at the optical layer     

High-performance optical-label switching packet routers and smart edge routers for the next-generation Internet

This paper discusses the architecture, protocol, analysis, and experimentation of optical packet switching routers incorporating optical-label switching (OLS) technologies and electronic edge routers with traffic shaping capabilities. The core optical router incorporates all-optical switching with contention resolution in wavelength, time, and space domains. It is also capable of accommodating traffic of any protocol and format, and supports packet, flow, burst, and circuit traffic. The edge router is designed to achieve traffic shaping with consideration for quality of service and priority based class-of-service. Simulation results show packet loss rates below 0.3% at load 0.7 and jitter values below 18 /spl mu/s. The traffic shaping reduces the packet loss rate by a factor of /spl sim/5 while adding negligible additional latency. The OLS core routers and the electronic edge routers are constructed including the field-programmable-gate-arrays incorporating the wavelength-aware forwarding and contention resolution algorithms. The experiment shows optical-label-based packet switching with a packet loss rate near 0.2%.     

End-to-end contention resolution schemes for an optical packet switching network with enhanced edge routers

This paper investigates contention resolution schemes for optical packet switching networks from an end-to-end perspective, where the combined exploitation of both core routers and edge routers are highlighted. For the optical-core network, we present the architecture of an optical router to achieve contention resolution in wavelength, time, and space domains. Complementing the solution involving only the core router intelligences, we propose performance enhancement schemes at the network edge, including a traffic-shaping function at the ingress edge and a proper dimensioning of the drop port number at the egress edge. Both schemes prove effective in reducing networkwide packet-loss rates. In particular, scalability performance simulations demonstrate that a considerably low packet-loss rate (0.0001% at load 0.6) is achieved in a 16-wavelength network by incorporating the performance enhancement schemes at the edge with the contention resolution schemes in the core. Further, we develop an field-programmable gate-array (FPGA)-based switch controller and integrate it with enabling optical devices to demonstrate the packet-by-packet contention resolution. Proof-of-principle experiments involving the prototype core router achieve an error-free low-latency contention resolution.     

Design of All-Optical Contention Detection and Resolution for 40-Gb/s Label-Switched Routers

We present a new scheme for all-optical contention detection and time-domain contention resolution of optical packets in label-switched routers that employ all-optical label recognition. The contention detection subsystem provides all the necessary control signals required to drive an optically controlled buffer which employs 1 times 2 optical switching elements and an optical fiber delay line. The state of the buffer is dynamically controlled on a per-packet basis with all the decisions and processing performed in the optical domain. Physical layer simulations show successful buffering and forwarding of 40-Gb/s optical packets with 2-dB power penalty     

On wavelength-converted optical routers employing flow routing

Optical networks have been extensively investigated in recent years to provide high capacity for the Internet traffic. Among them the optical packet-switching network deploying buffering, wavelength conversion and multipath routing could be the most suitable one. It cannot only provide high capacity transport for Internet traffic but also achieve high utilization of the network resources. However due to the packet-oriented routing and switching, such a network can result in a large amount of packets out-of-order, packet loss and/or with various delays upon arriving at end systems, causing TCP flows that comprise those packets corrupted. Large amount of corrupted flows can increase the burstiness of the Internet traffic and cause higher-layer protocol to malfunction. This paper presents a novel routing and switching method for optical IP networks-flow routing. Without using a complicate control mechanism flow routing deals with packet-flows to reduce the amount of corrupted flows. The performance of the wavelength-converted optical flow router is investigated, based on a novel analytical model. A performance metric, i.e., good-throughput, is used, measuring the ratio of the amount of packets comprised in the noncorrupted flows to total amount of packets. Comparing with optical packet-switching routers, a remarkable improvement of good-throughput can be obtained by using optical flow routers. More important, using wavelength conversion can greatly improve the good-throughput of optical flow routers.     

Keeping the packet sequence in optical packet-switched networks

This paper deals with optical packet switches with limited buffer capabilities, subject to asynchronous, variable-length packets and connection-oriented operation. The focus is put on buffer scheduling policies and queuing performance evaluation. In particular a combined use of the wavelength and time domain is exploited in order to obtain contention resolution algorithms that guarantee the sequence preservation of packets belonging to the same connection. Four simple algorithms for strict and loose packet sequence preservation are proposed. Their performance is studied and compared with previously proposed algorithms. Simulation results suggest that by accepting some additional processing effort it is possible to guarantee very low packet loss probabilities while avoiding the out-of-sequence delivery.     

On-the-Fly All-Optical Contention Resolution for NRZ and RZ Data Formats Using Packet Envelope Detection and Integrated Optical Switches

We present a packet-by-packet contention resolution scheme that combines packet detection, optical space switching, and wavelength conversion performed in the optical domain by integrated optical switches. The packet detection circuit provides the control signals required to deflect and wavelength-convert the contending packets so that all the packets are forwarded to the same output without any collision or packet droppings. We demonstrate the compatibility of the scheme with both nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) and return-to-zero (RZ) modulation formats by recording error-free operation for 10-Gb/s NRZ and 40-Gb/s RZ packet-mode traffic     

Advanced Subcarrier Multiplexed Label Swapping in Optical Packet Switching Nodes for Next Generation Internet Networks

This paper presents the recent achievements and main results of the optical packet switching node with label swapping capabilities that was developed in the framework of the IST-LABELS project. The implemented functionalities allows the routing and forwarding of optical packets at 10 Gb/s based on the information conveyed in the 18 GHz-subcarrier multiplexed (SCM) label at 155 Mb/s. Specific functions of the optical packet switching demonstrator such as label extraction and rewriting are based on high-performance fiber Bragg grating filters (FBG) whereas semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) based wavelength conversion allows payload 2R regeneration. Advanced aspects implemented in the high speed electronic control unit such as traffic shaping, multicast, and for the first time to our knowledge, a contention resolution algorithm with priority processing are thoroughly described in this paper. This paper also presents simulations exploring the effect of these advanced features in the global performance of an optical packet switched network. In particular, we found that the contention resolution algorithm based on parallel converters with 16 wavelengths contributes to improve up to four orders of magnitude the packet loss rate for low traffic loads whereas the improvement from traffic shaping policies was of 1 order of magnitude for both low and medium traffic loads. Along with the experimental results, the feasibility of the approach as the basis for the next generation internet networks is demonstrated.     

High-Performance Hybrid-Switching Optical Router for IP over WDM Integration

Because pure electrical routers with their bandwidth limitations can hardly keep up with the tremendous traffic growth in the Internet, optical routers based on various optical switching techniques including optical wavelength switching (OWS), optical burst switching (OBS), and optical packet switching (OPS) have been suggested to cope with this problem. However, because OBS and OPS are both in their early experimental phase and OWS only provides coarse granularity switching, a hybrid-switching optical router with combined OWS and electrical packet switching is a necessity in order to accommodate the entire multi-granularity traffic with multi-service requirements in a cost-effective manner. Its coordination capability of optical circuit switching and electrical packet switching enables efficient/intelligent usage of network resources. In this paper, we first review research and developments of such IP routers employing optical switching/interconnection techniques and examine how these techniques can be used inside routers to scale node capacity and to improve optical Internet performance. We also present and study the performance of a terabit optical router with an optical-electrical hybrid-switching fabric. The node architecture is based on the idea of IP over WDM integration with Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS). The network-level performance evaluations show that the proposed hybrid-switching optical router is a cost-effective solution for building the next generation GMPLS-based multi-granularity optical Internet.     

A unified study of contention-resolution schemes in optical packet-switched networks

This paper presents a comprehensive study of contention-resolution schemes in a multiwavelength optical packet-switched network. This investigation aims to provide a unified study of a network of optical routers, which include contention resolution in wavelength, time, and space dimensions. Specifically, we show: 1) how to accommodate all three dimensions of contention resolution in an integrated optical router; 2) how the performance of the three dimensions compare with one another; and 3) how various combinational schemes can be designed and how they perform. With the representative architectures and network topologies studied in this paper, the simulation experiment results capture the characteristics of different contention-resolution schemes, and they quantify the upper-bound average offered transmitter load for these schemes. The combinational contention resolution schemes are shown to effectively resolve packet contention and achieve good network performance under light to intermediate load.     

Scheduling algorithms for optical packet fabrics

Utilizing optical technologies to build packet fabrics for high-capacity switches and routers has several advantages in terms of scalability, power consumption, and cost. However, several technology related problems have to be overcome to be able to use such an approach. The reconfiguration times of optical crossbars are longer than those of electronic fabrics and end-to-end clock recovery in such systems add to the reconfiguration overheads. Both these problems can limit the efficiency of optical packet fabrics. In addition, existing work on input-buffered switches mostly assumes fixed size packets (referred as envelopes in this paper). When fixed size switching is used for Internet protocol networks where packets are of variable size, the incoming packets need to be fragmented to fit the fixed size envelopes. This fragmentation can lead to, possibly large loss of bandwidth and even instability. This paper addresses all of the above issues by presenting packetization and scheduling techniques that allow optical packet fabrics to be used within switches and routers. The proposed scheme aggregates multiple packets in a single envelope and when used in combination with proper scheduling algorithms, it can provide system stability as well as bandwidth and delay guarantees. As a result of the aggregation method, the reconfiguration frequency required from the optics is reduced, facilitating the use of optical technologies in implementing packet switch fabrics.     

An optical packet contention resolution supporting QoS differentiation with LRWC wavelength converters for OPS

The wavelength conversion is regarded as an effective way to resolve the optical packet contention in the wavelength domain for optical packet switching. An optical packet switching node, based on shared-per-node equipped with limited range wavelength converters and parametric wavelength converters (SPN-LP), is designed to further reduce optical packet loss probability. A novel optical packet contention resolution with priority differentiation wavelength scheduling algorithm to support quality of service (QoS) for the SPN-LP architecture is put forward in the article. The simulation results show that proposed optical packet resolution enables a good QoS differentiation, namely the high priority contending optical packet has the sufficient low packet loss probability.     

High-capacity multiservice optical label switching for the next-generation Internet

This article presents an optical label switching technology geared toward the next-generation Internet, and highlights its promising potential to accommodate packet, burst, and circuit traffic in a unified optical layer. In particular, we provide detailed discussions on an architecture design for a high capacity optical label switching router by considering enabling optical technologies. In pursuit of an effective contention resolution scheme, we investigate an end-to-end solution by incorporating a traffic shaping function at the network edge with wavelength, time, and space dimensions contention resolution in the core network. Experimental results indicate that this scheme is capable of achieving very low packet loss rates. Furthermore, due to its natural compatibility with GMPLS architecture, optical label switching has great potential for a seamless upgrade of today's optical networks toward the next generation Internet.     

A novel IP with MPLS over WDM-based broad-band wavelength switchedIP network

This paper presents a new technology for constructing IP over photonic systems. An IP with multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) over wavelength division multiplexing (WDM)-based broad-band IP network architecture and protocol is proposed and analyzed in this paper, which supports variable-length IP-like optical packet label switching and optical virtual path routing. This system tries to merge into one layer the functionalities of the wavelength switching, SONET mux/demux, and IP routing, and is sometimes known as the concept of optical MPLS. The label banding, forwarding/switching process, and node architecture of the proposed network are discussed and studied. A unique as well as important function of a lambda/label edge router (LER) is a flow assembly device that can encompass MPLS' forward equivalence classes, label stacking, and label switching path aggregation function. At the same time, a particular function of the core label switching router is wavelength merging. A fiber delay line is used to delay the data stream in order to process the label information and resolve contention. Transmission bit error rate measurements of the baseband data stream and back-to-back is also demonstrated to show its feasibility     

A fully implemented 12 /spl times/ 12 data vortex optical packet switching interconnection network

A fully functional optical packet switching (OPS) interconnection network based on the data vortex architecture is presented. The photonic switching fabric uniquely capitalizes on the enormous bandwidth advantage of wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) wavelength parallelism while delivering minimal packet transit latency. Utilizing semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-based switching nodes and conventional fiber-optic technology, the 12-port system exhibits a capacity of nearly 1 Tb/s. Optical packets containing an eight-wavelength WDM payload with 10 Gb/s per wavelength are routed successfully to all 12 ports while maintaining a bit error rate (BER) of 10/sup -12/ or better. Median port-to-port latencies of 110 ns are achieved with a distributed deflection routing network that resolves packet contention on-the-fly without the use of optical buffers and maintains the entire payload path in the optical domain.     

Demonstration of 100 Gbps optical packet switching using header processor based on 48-bit longest prefix matching

Wire-rate packet processing and its energy saving for over 100 Gbps speed of line are major issues to be resolved in optical packet switching (OPS) networks. For that purpose, we newly develop a high-speed, deterministic-latency electronic header processor based on longest prefix matching (LPM) for searching optical packet destination addresses (OP-DAs). This paper reports the successful experimental results of electronic header processing based on LPM search of up to 48 bits and optical switching of 100 Gbps optical packets by the use of the header processor. We demonstrate 48-bit LPM-capable optical packet switching. We also demonstrate IP packet transfer and 32-bit LPM-capable optical packet switching. In the latter demonstration, the 32-bit OP-DA of optical packets is directly copied from the 32-bit destination address of Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) packets. This result indicates that OPS networks can be deployed with electronic IP networks by the use of integrated network operation between OPS and IP networks.     

A novel all-optical transport network with time-shared wavelength channels

High-speed and high-capacity transport networks are necessary for providing future broadband services and multimedia applications. Optical networks, such as wavelength-routed networks and optical switching networks, are the most popular solutions. However, the limited electronic switching capability constrains the scalability of the multihop wavelength routed networks, while the difficulty and complexity of implementing efficient optical buffers and optical contention resolution schemes constrains the development of optical switching networks. This paper proposes a new architecture for the optical transport networks based on time-wavelength-space routers (TWSRs). The TWSR is equipped without optical buffers and optical contention resolution devices. A connection is established by constructing a time-slot based lightpath (ts-lightpath) between source TWSR and destination TWSR. The paper also proposes a heuristic algorithm for the problem of establishing the set of efficient ts-lightpaths for a given set of connection requests. The effectiveness of the proposed network architecture with the heuristic algorithm is demonstrated by simulation.     

Cell-sorting device for creating synchronous variable-length optical packet switches

We consider the design of a synchronous variable-length optical packet switch. Fixed-length packet switches may be used to switch variable-length packets if the packets are first divided into multiple fixed-length cells. However, for many fixed-length switch architectures, cells from multiple packets will become interspersed, and packet integrity will not be preserved. We describe the design of a fiber-delay-line-based cell sorter that when appended to the output of a fixed-length packet switch converts the switch into a variable-length packet switch by enabling variable-length packets to exit contiguously. We describe two implementations of the cell sorter. The first is simply a bank of delay lines. The second uses two stages of time-slot interchange and reduces the number of delay line elements to be a logarithmic function of the maximum packet length. We also estimate the packet-blocking probabilities of the resulting variable-length packet switch and verify our results via simulation.     

An optical router with multistage management functions for asynchronous optical packet switching network

An optical router with multistage distributed management features for the asynchronous optical packet switching (OPS) network is presented, which can improve switching capacity and all-optical scalability. A compact recycling-fiber-delay-line (Rec-FDL) based collision resolution mechanism is proposed to resolve the contentions for asynchronous and variable length optical packets. The analysis models of stabilities, packet loss rates (PLR) and average packet waiting latencies (PWL) for the router are developed based on the timer based optical packet assembly algorithm. The simulation shows that PLR and PWL for a 400-byte optical packet transmitted in the 32 wavelengths dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) system equal to 3.48 × 10⁻⁴ and 0.072 ns, respectively. The non-blocking switching can be realized for the packets with lengths less than the buffer granularity of the Rec-FDL, and the optimized performance for the proposed router can be obtained through properly selecting of the system parameters.     

Performance of two-stage shared fiber delay line optical packet switch under bursty traffic

Packet contention is a major issue in an optical packet switching network. It is not a trivial task to resolve contention due to lack of optical RAM technology. This article proposes a two-stage shared fiber delay line (FDL) optical packet switch for contention resolution. In this article, shared FDLs are used to buffer optical packets, in which a pool of buffer memory is shared among all switch output ports. Most of the existing optical buffering schemes are output-based which require a huge number of FDLs as well as a larger switch size that incur extra implementation cost. However, a shared buffering approach is considered in this article in order to reduce implementation cost. In this article, FDLs are implemented in two stages using an extremely simple auxiliary switch. The proposed switch architecture leads to more efficient use of buffer space. The superiority of the proposed switch architecture has been established by means of extensive simulations. The performance of the proposed switch is investigated under bursty traffic. Simulation result shows that the proposed switch can achieve satisfactory performance at the price of a reasonable amount of FDLs. Moreover, the significance of the proposed switch is confirmed by simulation.