An efficient burst cloning scheme for optical burst switching over star networks

Burst cloning reduces burst loss at core nodes by sending multiple copies of the same burst through optical burst switched (OBS) network simultaneously in order to enhance probability that at least one copy will reach destination. In this paper, we adopt burst cloning with star topology and we show that burst cloning at high load leads to a significant burst loss at edge nodes, which become unable to schedule new bursts at earliest tolerable departure time. To resolve this problem, we propose an opportunistic burst cloning scheme, which aims to control the extra load of burst cloning. We develop an analytical model for conventional OBS, basic burst cloning scheme and opportunistic burst cloning scheme over star networks. Both analytical and simulation results show the efficiency of opportunistic burst cloning scheme.