Analysis of multihop lightwave networks

The authors present an analytical solution to the performance analysis of multihop lightwaves networks for both store-and-forward and hot potato routing with packet compression, taking into account the effects of packet misrouting and time out. The inefficiencies due to both misrouting and time out are investigated. The two schemes are compared on the basis of total delay experienced by a packet in the network and the mean number of hops. Numerical results show that the inefficiencies arising from misrouting and reinjection can be offset if the compression ratio is sufficiently high. For example, in a 10240 user network, with a compression ratio of 10, the maximum number of new packets which can be placed onto the network per unit of time for the hot potato algorithm can be a factor of 4 larger than that for store and forward. Compression is therefore worthwhile. For smaller compression ratios, the inefficiencies due to misrouting and time out are severe. For the same 10240 user network with a fixed arrival rate (λ=0.05), it is observed that a small compression ratio (C =2) produces no advantage and that for very high compression ratios (C⩾15) an asymptotic limit on improvement sets in