Suitably aggregated data burst enhances link utilization and reduces data processing complexity of optical transport networks rather than just transmitting each bursty input traffic from access networks. This data burst generation method is called as a burst assembly process and has two assembly parameters, timer and threshold, for regulating burst release time and burst size. Since the traffic characteristics of data burst generated at the burst assembler may affect network performance, the decision of burst assembly parameters should be carefully designed. Thus, in this paper we study the dimensioning burst assembly process to find the burst assembly parameter values satisfying target performance. For this purpose, we first analyze timer-based and threshold-based burst assembly processes, respectively. As constraints on the dimensioning burst assembly process, we consider the following performance metrics: 1) processing delay of control packet, 2) burst loss at control plane, and 3) link utilization. Based on these constraints, a decision mechanism of the burst assembly parameters is proposed. From numerical analysis, we suggest a possible lower boundary value for the burst assembly parameters satisfying the target burst loss rate and delay time at the control plane.

In this paper, we develop an analytical model to evaluate the performance of optical burst switching (OBS) node with optical-level buffers for retransmission of blocked bursts. First, currently used burst blocking models and modelling of optical buffers at OBS nodes are shown to be inappropriate as a blocking model for retransmission in OBS nodes. Thus, we propose a new blocking model for the burst transmission mechanism with retransmission technique in an optical-level buffered OBS node. From the numerical analysis, we show the performance enhancement by applying optical buffers for retransmission of blocked bursts in terms of burst blocking probability and link utilization.