TCP Performance over Optical Burst-Switched Networks with Different Access Technologies

Different access networks are here considered when interconnected with an optical wide area network based on the optical burst switching transfer mode. End-to-end performance is evaluated when the TCP protocol is employed. The effects on TCP of access network protocols and of the burst assembly procedure performed at the ingress edge nodes are evaluated both in wired and wireless scenarios, with optical and electrical technologies. The influence of the assembly time out in the different access contexts is presented and numerical investigations are performed by means of ns-2 simulations.Results show that end-to-end throughput is mostly influenced by the delay introduced by access protocols, which arises in the different scenarios, and by the assembly time out. These results provide meaningful insights for the overall system design and, in particular, for the setting of the inter-working unit parameters.