We propose a service differentiation scheme for optical burst switching (OBS) with the scheduling algorithm Horizon. In the proposed scheme, in addition to the latest horizon used in the conventional Horizon, we introduce the second latest horizon and use them for reservation preemption. Burst priority order is perfectly guaranteed according to the burst class information informed by its control packet if the arrival time of the burst is later than the second latest horizon and earlier than the latest horizon. Since the extra offset time is no longer needed for service differentiation, the burst blocking probability and the data latency will be reduced. We assume a multi-hop network with ring topology where bursts traverse five intermediate nodes, and evaluate the performance in terms of the end-to-end and hop-by-hop burst blocking probabilities. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can achieve service differentiation with smaller blocking probability than the extra-offset-time-based scheme with Horizon. Furthermore, we show that the proposed scheme preserves service differentiation even in multi-hop environments.

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.

In the future network, optical technology will play a stronger role not only for transmission but also for switching. Optical burst switching (OBS) emerged as a promising switching paradigm. It brings together the complementary strengths of optics and electronics. This paper presents the design and implementation of an overlay mode burst-switched photonic network testbed, including its architecture, protocols, algorithms and experiments. We propose a flexible "transceiver + forwarding" OBS node architecture to perform both electronic burst assembly/disassembly and optical burst forwarding. It has been designed to provide class of service (CoS), wavelength selection for local bursts, and transparency to cut-through bursts. The functional modules of OBS control plane and its key design issues are presented, including signaling, routing, and a novel scheduling mechanism with combined contention resolution in space and wavelength domains. Finally, we report the experimental results on functional verification, performance analysis and service demonstration.

Optical Burst Switching (OBS) has been developed as an efficient switching technique to exploit the capacity provided by Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) transmission technology for the next generation optical Internet. One critical design issue in OBS is how to provide Quality-of-Service (QoS) on optical networks. In order to provide the service differentiation, we propose in this paper a buffer allocation algorithm to schedule bursts at the edge OBS nodes, a bandwidth allocation algorithm and a Fiber Delay Line (FDL) allocation algorithm to schedule bursts at the core OBS nodes. We also introduce a new burst assembly technique in which the burst is generated either when the sum of the collected packet sizes reaches the maximum threshold or when the burst assembling time reaches the timeout limit. Our simulation results show that the proposed algorithms achieve the controllable burst loss probability for different service classes. The bandwidth allocation algorithm performs very well at the core OBS nodes in terms of the low loss probability.

The conservative mode and the greedy mode scheduling algorithms for OBS switch with shared buffer are presented and discussed. Their performance is evaluated by computer simulations, as well as that of the greedy mode with void-filling algorithm. Simulation results show that the conservative mode and the greedy mode have different characteristics under different input load. The greedy mode and the conservative mode are more applicable in a real system than that with void-filling, owing to their lower computational complexity and FIFO characteristic. Finally, a composite algorithm integrated by the conservative mode and the greedy mode is proposed, which is adapted to the input load with the help of an input load monitor. The simulation results reveal that it has favorable performance under different load.

Burst switched WDM optical networks are coming up as suitable network architectures for future Optical Internet backbones. However, the lack of optical processing capabilities results in increased burst blocking probability, which in turn lead to very limited network performance. Efficient contention resolution algorithm is therefore necessary. In this paper, we propose a distributed wavelength assignment algorithm named Priority-based Wavelength Assignment (PWA) for such networks. Each node selectively assigns wavelengths based on the wavelength priority information "learned" from its wavelength utilization history in a distributed manner. As the learning process progresses, nodes in the same part of the network tend to assign different wavelengths to avoid contentions. Simulation results show that the PWA can effectively reduce the blocking probability and increase the performance of burst optical networks compared to previous algorithms such as random assignment.

Optical Burst Switching (OBS) is one of the most important switching technologies in future optical Internet. One of critical design issues in OBS is how to reduce burst dropping resulting from resource contention. Especially when traffic load is high, there should be frequent deflection routing as well as more contentions in an optical burst-switched network. The burst loss performance can be improved by implementing a proper deflection routing scheme. In this paper, we propose a limited deflection routing scheme to prevent injudicious deflection routing. The proposed scheme reduces unnecessary contentions resulting from deflection routing itself, increasing the utilization of network resource such as channels. Simulation tests were performed to evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme.