Performance of IP optical packet networks with deflection routing

This paper deals with optical packet switching in a full-IP transport network scenario. Given the technological limits of accomplishing packet buffering in the optical domain, deflection routing is here explored as an alternative technique for resolving packet contentions without buffering packets. Two different network topologies have been considered here, that is a regular six-node network with different connectivity factors and the classical NSF network. The performance improvements that can be obtained by deflection routing have been evaluated considering different methods for choosing the alternative paths where to deflect packets that cannot be transmitted onto the shortest: path to the addressed destination.