Combined study on survivability and performance in optical packet switched networks

Optical packet-switching (OPS) networks remain an emerging technology, as exemplified by the feasibility challenges of optical RAM. Nevertheless, OPS networks possess significant potential advantages, including a high data transfer rate and low power consumption due to the elimination of optical–electrical–optical conversion, compared to conventional electronic packet-switching networks, flexibility in handling traffic fluctuations due to packet-switching principles, and low latency as they do not require overhead for communication path establishment. However, effective data recovery from non-negligible packet loss due to optical packet collisions remains a critical challenge in OPS networks. Packet-level forward error correction (FEC) is regarded as an effective data recovery method for lossy networks, such as OPS ones, because it does not rely on packet-by-packet feedback, which could be lost, and avoids the delays associated with feedback and retransmission. On the other hand, FEC requires the transmission of additional packets beyond the original data, increasing the computational load associated with encoding and decoding. In this paper, we propose a data transfer method based on erasure coding, which is useful not only in OPS networks but also in other network environments suffering from severe packet loss due to collisions or signal degradation, such as optical circuit switching networks and wireless networks. This method improves effective data transfer throughput by limiting the number of transmitted packets and reducing the computational overhead of the encoding and decoding processes. This improvement is achieved through the appropriate configuration of the distribution of XOR operation target packets that constitute XOR packets, thereby restricting the number of symbols encoded in each XOR operation and introducing cumulative feedback of which symbols were already recovered at the receiver. To validate the proposed method, we conducted not only simulation evaluations but also what we believe to be the world’s first packet transmission demonstration experiment using packet-level erasure coding over an actual OPS network testbed, taking actual computational overhead into account. The experimental results show that, in high transmission rate environments, the proposed method achieves up to a 188.7% increase in effective data transfer throughput compared to the benchmark LT-Codes-based packet-level FEC transmission method while reducing the processing time on the sender side by up to 15.6% and on the receiver side by up to 39.4%. In addition, the number of packets required for data decoding can be reduced by up to 63.3%.

At a switching node in an optical packet switching (OPS) network, packet contention occurs whenever two or more packets try to reach the same output port of the node at the same wavelength, consequently it degrades network performance. Previous works on optical packet switching flourishingly adopted optical buffering with optical fibre delay line (FDL), wavelength conversion, or deflection routing to resolve packet contention. In this paper, we focus on the optical fibre delay line approach, especially the selection of proper length of FDL under asynchronous variable length packet traffic. As the length of fibre coils equipped in a FDL optical buffering system is impossible to be reconfigured frequently, a proper length of FDL should be determined during manufacture. The motivation is to observe the impact factors on FDL optical system performance in a WDM network scenario, and provide the empirical data as supports to select the proper length of FDL in an OPS node system.

Buffering management is a crucial function in current optical packet switching (OPS) networks. To avoid packet blocking due to competition for the same switched path, optical buffering is required to queue packets after a router makes the forwarding decision. In this paper, the author proposed a buffering scheme based on optical code-division multiple access (OCDMA), where each packet is encoded with an optical signature code. An optical coding technique combining spectral-amplitude coding (SAC) and two-code keying (TCK) is introduced to advance the buffering performance regarding packet loss probability. In TCK, the payload bits “1” and “0” of a stored packet are respectively converted to a SAC signal and its complementarity. As the Hamming distance between the coding signals of bits “1” and “0” is extended, the existing drawback that the OCDMA-based buffer capacity is limited by the decoder noise increased with the number of queued SAC packets is resolved. Moreover, an encoder consisting of a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) array is applied for simplifying the system design. A SAC signal and its complementary counterpart can be generated simultaneously without the need of an extra encoder.

An optical router with multistage distributed management features for the asynchronous optical packet switching (OPS) network is presented, which can improve switching capacity and all-optical scalability. A compact recycling-fiber-delay-line (Rec-FDL) based collision resolution mechanism is proposed to resolve the contentions for asynchronous and variable length optical packets. The analysis models of stabilities, packet loss rates (PLR) and average packet waiting latencies (PWL) for the router are developed based on the timer based optical packet assembly algorithm. The simulation shows that PLR and PWL for a 400-byte optical packet transmitted in the 32 wavelengths dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) system equal to 3.48 × 10?4 and 0.072 ns, respectively. The non-blocking switching can be realized for the packets with lengths less than the buffer granularity of the Rec-FDL, and the optimized performance for the proposed router can be obtained through properly selecting of the system parameters.

Optical buffering is one of the main obstacles in optical packet switching (OPS) networks. We proposed the network global control strategy to resolve this problem. By introducing the cycled traffic at the edge node and the slot assignment algorithm at the core node, a slotted OPS networks with no contention can be realized. In this network, a good throughput, end to end delay and delay jitter performance can be gotten at high load simultaneously, so it may be a promising candidate for the future optical networks.

Packet contention is a major issue in optical packet switching network. To resolve contention, optical buffering approach is used using Fiber Delay Lines (FDLs). Yet there is a heavy packet loss rate due to unavailability of output-port and free FDLs. This paper proposes a selective minimum delay value algorithm (SMDV) to resolve contention for shared FDL buffering architecture in order to ensure the availability of output-port for the contended packet after coming out from FDL. Simulation result shows that proposed scheme can achieve a packet loss rate of ~ even at heavy traffic load 0.9 for 32×32 switch using 32 variable length FDL.

This paper studies an important problem in the IEEE 802.11 distributed coordination function (DCF)-based wireless local area network (WLAN): how well can the network support quality of service (QoS). Specifically, this paper analyzes the network's performance in terms of maximum protocol capacity or throughput, delay, and packet loss rate. Although the performance of the 802.11 protocol, such as throughput or delay, has been extensively studied in the saturated case, it is demonstrated that maximum protocol capacity can only be achieved in the nonsaturated case and is almost independent of the number of active nodes. By analyzing packet delay, consisting of medium access control (MAC) service time and waiting time, accurate estimates were derived for delay and delay variation when the throughput increases from zero to the maximum value. Packet loss rate is also given for the nonsaturated case. Furthermore, it is shown that the channel busyness ratio provides precise and robust information about the current network status, which can be utilized to facilitate QoS provisioning. The authors have conducted a comprehensive simulation study to verify their analytical results and to tune the 802.11 to work at the optimal point with maximum throughput and low delay and packet loss rate. The simulation results show that by controlling the total traffic rate, the original 802.11 protocol can support strict QoS requirements, such as those required by voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) or streaming video, and at the same time achieve high channel utilization.

Optical Packet Switching (OPS) has emerged as a promising candidate for the future all-optical core network. A crucial issue in such networks is how the packet length distribution (PLD) influences the performance under different traffic scenarios. In this paper we investigate how a deterministic, empirical and exponential PLD influences the Packet Loss Rate (PLR) in an optical packet switch in the case of a Poisson arrival process and a bursty Hyperexponential arrival process. We consider optical packet switches with and without Fibre Delay Line (FDL) contention buffers. Our results show that in the case of OPS without FDL buffering and with a Hyperexponential arrival process, the empirical PLD yields the lowest PLR. However, in the case of OPS with FDL buffering, the deterministic PLD yields the lowest PLR.

The present work analyzes the performance of photonic switching networks, optical packet switching (OPS) and optical burst switching (OBS), in mesh topology of different sizes and configurations. The “lossless” photonic switching node is based on a semiconductor optical amplifier, demonstrated and validated with experimental results on optical power gain, noise figure, and spectral range. The network performance was evaluated through computer simulations based on parameters such as average number of hops, optical packet loss fraction, and optical transport delay (Am). The combination of these elements leads to a consistent account of performance, in terms of network traffic and packet delivery for OPS and OBS metropolitan networks. Results show that a combination of highly connected mesh topologies having an ingress e-buffer present high efficiency and throughput, with very low packet loss and low latency, ensuring fast data delivery to the final receiver.

Dependability is a crucial issue in future optical packet switched (OPS) networks. In this paper, we present the rationale for a dependability differentiated OPS network. A general model that supports orthogonal differentiation of performance related and dependability related quality-of-service parameters as well as an example of how to differentiate dependability is presented.

In this PhD dissertation multi-rate models are examined for the performance analysis of telecommunication networks through mathematical analysis and simulation. Particular emphasis is given to optical networks. The main goal is the development of analytical models for the calculation of network performance metrics, such as blocking probabilities, transmission delay and utilization of the common channel. The proposed analytical models are distinguished according to the network technologies. Three different technologies are considered: A) Wavelength routed optical networks. B) Optical access networks. C) Wireless Internet access networks. Multi-rate loss models are proposed for the performance evaluation of wavelength routed optical networks. Firstly, the case of a single link is considered and then a mesh all-optical network is examined. In addition, analytical models are proposed for Optical Packet Switching (OPS) networks, for the case of an all-optical OPS switch and of an OPS mesh network. Multi-rate analytical models are proposed for the evaluation of the performance of Passive Optical Networks (PONs) implementing different multiple access methods. For the case of Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) the Ethernet PON is studied, which supports multiple service-classes. Regarding the Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) PONs a hybrid WDM-TDMA PON is considered and the call-level performance is evaluated. Calls are distinguished by their arrival process, which can be random or quasi random, by their bandwidth requirements, which can be fixed of elastic and by their behavior during their service, which can be calls of fixed transmission rate or calls that alternate between ON and OFF periods. Finally multi-rate loss models are proposed for the case of Optical Code Division Multiple Access (OCDMA) PONs that take into account the user activity and the presence of additive noise in the transmission channel. For the performance analysis of wireless Internet access networks analytical models are proposed, which implement the IEEE 802.11 protocol or the IEEE 802.11e protocol. The proposed analysis calculated the saturation throughput and the end-to-end packet delay as a function of the Medium Access Control (MAC) delay and the queueing delay. In all cases the accuracy of the proposed models is validated through simulation.

The huge traffic growth which is currently experienced (traffic nearly doubles every year) and foreseen to continue for several years calls for high capacity networks capable of efficiently handling various types of traffic (voice, video, data). WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing) optical networks exploiting also fast optical packet switching are expected to provide the required capacity and flexibility for the next generation of high-speed networks. In this context, the European ACTS KEOPS project (KEys to Optical Packet Switching) has concentrated on the definition, development and assessment of optical packet switching and routing networks capable of providing transparency to the payload bit rate. Optical packets of fixed duration have been considered where the payload bit rate, which is user-dependent, can vary from a few hundred Mb/s to 10 Gb/s whereas the header is at a fixed low bit rate (622 Mb/s) to facilitate processing at the network/node interfaces. The challenge addressed by the KEOPS project was therefore to combine the advantages of the relatively coarse-grained WDM techniques with emerging all-optical switching capabilities to yield a high-throughput optical platform directly underpinning next generation data networks (ATM, IP). The project which involved nine partners (Alcatel Alsthom Recherche (F), France Telecom-CNET (F), CSELT (I), Technical University of Denmark (DK), Alcatel CIT (F), Alcatel SEL (D), University of Bologna (I), ETH-Zurich (CH) and University of Strathclyde (UK)) has addressed both network and system studies as well as demonstration experiments based on advanced optoelectronic components developed in the project in order to validate the proposed concept.

One of the difficulties of optical packet switched networks is buffering optical packets in the network. Burstiness of Internet traffic causes high packet drop rates and low utilization in very small buffered OPS networks. In this paper, we propose a new node-based pacing algorithm and show that it can increase the utilization of very small optical RAM buffered core optical packet-switched (OPS) networks.

This paper proposes: 1) a traffic flow management policy, which allocates and organizes machine type communication (MTC) traffic flows network resources sharing within evolved packet system (EPS); 2) an access element as a wireless sensor network gateway for providing an overlaying access channel between the machine type devices and EPS; and 3) it addresses the effect and interaction in the heterogeneity of applications, services and terminal devices, and the related quality of service (QoS) issues among them. This paper overcomes the problems of network resource starvation by preventing deterioration of network performance. The scheme is validated through simulation, which indicates the proposed traffic flow management policy outperforms the current traffic management policy. Specifically, simulation results show that the proposed model achieves an enhancement in QoS performance for the MTC traffic flows, including a decrease of 99.45% in packet loss rate (PLR), a decrease of 99.89% in packet end to end (E2E) delay, a decrease of 99.21% in packet delay variation (PDV). Furthermore, it retains the perceived quality of experience of the real time application users within high satisfaction levels, such as the voice over long term evolution service possessing a mean opinion score (MOS) of 4.349 and enhancing the QoS of a video conference service within the standardized values of a 3GPP body, with a decrease of 85.28% in PLR, a decrease of 85% in packet E2E delay and a decrease of 88.5% in PDV.

This paper proposes a scheme for pump-wavelength selection in an optical packet switch (OPS) with parametric wavelength converters (PWCs). In this scheme, pump wavelengths can be dynamically changed in all time slots, and more than one PWC is allowed to convert a wavelength in a chained manner. The objective of this scheme is to minimize the packet loss rates of the OPS. This scheme is called dynamic pump-wavelength selection with chained parametric wavelength conversion (DPS-C). DPS-C selects the pump wavelength for each PWC so as to maximize the number of successful requests, which refer to packets that wish to be forwarded to their requested output fibers. A PWC, which has the advantage of multiple wavelength conversion, uses a pump wavelength that can be flexibly chosen to define which wavelengths can be converted from/to. The set of original and converted wavelengths, where the pump wavelength is set in the middle of the two wavelengths, is called the conversion pair. Each PWC supports several conversion pairs. The OPS allows each wavelength to be converted using combinations of available conversion pairs, which are not used by any requests, from more than one PWC. A simulation shows that DPS-C outperforms the conventional scheme in terms of packet loss rates in both uniform and nonuniform traffic patterns.