Analytical Evaluation and Implementation of a Novel Slotted Optical Switching Scheme with Two Way Reservations

Optical Burst Switching achieves multiplexing gain in the optical domain but cannot reach reasonable utilization before burst losses become unacceptable. In this paper, we analytically evaluate a novel method to avoid these losses by first sending over the control channel a short scout packet that simulates the events that the actual packet will experience. Once the scout message detects a drop at any of the intermediate nodes, the actual packet is not sent but the process repeated. The penalty is the delay for the implicit reservations and the occasional process repetition, limiting the applicability of this approach to a periphery of no more than just few thousand kilometers. A slotted approach is adopted to facilitate accounting of data and allow for pipelined operation which improves performance. We also evaluate the implementation complexity of the proposed scheme to prove its feasibility and the avoidance of congestion on the control channel.