A new hybrid architecture for optical burst switching networks

Abstract

Optical Burst Switching (OBS) has been proposed as a new paradigm to achieving a practical balance between Optical Circuit Switching (OCS) and Optical Packet Switching (OPS). Hybrid Optical Networks (HON) that combines OCS and OBS has emerged to grant the OBS network the ability to support connection-oriented applications. Although efficient in terms of reducing the burst loss probability as well as improving the overall network performance, it provides a limited degree of Quality of Service (QoS). What we mean by QoS is the capability of a network to provide a guaranteed level of availability while satisfying strict limits on delay. In this paper, we propose new hybrid architecture for OBS networks. The proposed architecture qualifies the OBS network to support different classes of QoS. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.