Performance Evaluation of Optical Burst Switching Networks (OBS) Network

Abstract

To meet the ever-growing demand for broadband multimedia traffic, the all-optical network which uses wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) is a popular solution. Among several possible optical switching categories, Optical Burst Switching (OBS) has significant advantages. It is a switching technology that aggregates data at edge router and then send the data into the network in the form of a data burst. In addition to its a high-quality user data transmission, OBS' high speed and large transmission capacity characteristics make it an ideal method for the data transmission intra-Data Center or between data centers in different locations. The performance of the network needs to be evaluated in order to provide adequate resource for service and provides insight for further network developments. In this project, we evaluate the performance of simulation OBS network with three different evaluation measures: blocking probability, utilization, and effective utilization. They are measured under different offered traffic load by simulation. Specifically, blocking probability are also be assessed by Erlang Fixed Point Approximation (EFPA). The blocking probability obtained from two methods are verified to be matched. By comparing the result of blocking probability and effective utilization, the trade-off between the two can be studied, because utilization indicates that the resource is underutilized under heavy load condition. Based on the current model, we proposed an advanced OBS model with strict priority regime, in which different kinds of traffic are assign with a constant priority. We are now working on evaluating its performance for different priority, what's more, this is totally a new attempt.