Analytical Framework for End-to-End Design of Optical Burst-Switched Networks

This paper presents an analytical model of TCP throughput in optical burst-switched (OBS) networks. Several parameterscharacterize this system and influence the network design process, such as the assembly time, the access bandwidth, the burstloss rate, and they are taken into account in the formulation of TCP send rates. Moreover burst loss is considered a consequenceof contention in core nodes and it is formulated in relation to a quite general core node architecture. The novelty of the workis represented by the possibility of analytically representing the whole end-to-end connection so that a fast and effective tool toevaluate the relationships between network and access design is provided. An application example is given to prove the practicalsignificance of the approach. Simulation results are provided to validate the model and the related assumptions.