A rate-adaptive segmentation algorithm for integrated hybrid optical networks

Integrated hybrid optical networks (IHON) add statistically multiplexed (SM) packet traffic to increase the utilization of the wavelength channels dedicated to optical circuit switched traffic. SM packets are inserted in the variable sized free gaps in-between circuit switched packets. Some packets are too large for fitting in a specific gap, hence the utilization of the gaps decides the achievable throughput efficiency of the network. Segmenting SM packets, allowing also small gaps to be exploited, comes with the cost of adding extra processing and segmentation overhead. Hence, the number of segmented packets should therefore be minimized. In this paper we propose a novel rate-adaptive segmentation scheme (RAS), increasing the gap utilization while minimizing the number of segmented packets. The algorithm dynamically adapts the SM packet length pattern to fill the fragmented bandwidth and increase the throughput. Simulation results show that the scheme heightens the utilization from 73% to 89%. Furthermore, we propose a bounded delay scheme that minimizes the delay and bounds the jitter by droppings old head-of-line packets reducing packet loss ratio by 3%.