Loss differentiation in OBS networks without wavelength-conversion capability

Service differentiation is an open research issue in OBS networks. Most proposals assume full wavelength-conversion, but wavelength converters are still very complex and expensive. We propose the QoS Multiple Wavelength Simultaneous Transmission technique (QoS-MWST), a novel method for providing loss differentiation in OBS networks without wavelength-conversion capability (or even limited capability). In QoS-MWST, multiple copies of each burst are simultaneously sent on different wavelengths, and loss differentiation is achieved by properly sending more copies of the higher-priority bursts. Through analysis and simulation, we prove that QoS-MWST can efficiently provide loss differentiation in this type of OBS networks.