A Performance Study of Limited Range Partial Wavelength Conversion for Asynchronous Optical Packet/Burst Switching

Abstract

Abstract-In this work, we study an asynchronous optical packet/burst switching node equipped with a number of limited range wavelength converters shared per output link. A wavelength conversion policy is one by which the outgoing wavelength for an optical packet is selected if its incoming wavelength is in use. Through simulations, we show that the so-called "far conversion" policy in which the optical packet is switched onto the farthest available wavelength in the tuning range, outperforms the other policies we studied. We point out the "clustering effect" in the use of wavelengths to explain this phenomenon.

Performance Issues in Optical Burst/Packet Switching

“…A drawback of this mechanism, however, is high cost of WC devices, especially, in case of a fullwavelength conversion, which is performed in wide frequency range. Some solutions make use of limited or shared wavelength conversion capabilities (e.g., [26]). Application of deflection routing is almost cost-less since no additional devices are necessary for this mechanism.…”

Research in optical burst switching within the e-Photon/ONe network of excellence

“…The degree of conversion d describes the number of wavelengths in the tuning range and the tuning range ratio parameter r is the percentage ratio of d to the number of wavelength channels. We have studied in [24] three wavelength conversion policies for a burst whose wavelength is occupied. A random, or the nearest, or the farthest available wavelength is selected from the tuning range in the so-called random, near, and far conversion policies, respectively.…”