A real-time TCP management scheme over OLS networks

To support the fast growing demand for transmission capacity, optical label switching technology (OLS) seems to be a strong candidate due to its ability to allow fast switching and resources provisioning as well as quality of service (QoS) support. Since TCP is and may remain the most popular traffic in Internet, TCP implementation becomes a major concern in OLS networking and operation. To take full advantage of OLS networks and integrate several TCP functions in the optical layer, the implementation of TCP over novel OLS network is addressed for providing QoS control, resources provisioning and finer granularity analysis. In this paper, we introduce a novel technique for packet retransmission based on real-time management of TCP parameters, network resources and traffic requirements. The technique handles activities including signaling, switching tasks and contention resolution. We develop a scalable packet retransmission approach based on buffering technique and contention resolution, and formalize it using network resources availability in terms of buffering and transmission capabilities available on the established optical path. Finally, simulation activity is conducted to validate the proposed approach and evaluate its performances.