Performance modeling of asynchronous bufferless optical packet switches with limited range wavelength converters

In this paper we propose a novel Markov model to evaluate the performance of an asynchronous optical packet switch (OPS) equipped with limited range wavelength converters (LRWCs). The model is used for calculating the packet loss ratio (PLR) as a function of the normalized system load and the conversion range of the LRWC, when a circular wavelength conversion policy is adopted. The closed form expression of the PLR is given. We also build a discrete event simulator to evaluate the present model. Results show that the proposed approximate model gives upper bounds for the PLR and is satisfactory under different network scenarios.