Research On OBS And Semi-physical Simulation

An increasing number of researchers begin focusing on On-Board-Switch. In today's world, terrestrial switch technology has made a rapid improvement. With the complexity of the terrestrial switch and the restriction of outer space condition, the terrestrial switch technology does not fit satellite network. And so, we are exploring OBS, which should be especially suited for satellite network based on optical ISL.Through analysis of OBS, this paper gives a novel switch technology for satellite network—Packet Burst Switch. With PBS technology, control packet is transmitted before burst data through different channel. For the assembling of burst data, we propose Leading Assembling, by which the loss probability and the delay of packet is smaller. For the assignment of channel, Output Poll Assignment is given. The method is simpler, and the loss probability is smaller. In a word, PBS is much better than other switch technology and is in favor for the realization on board.Simulation is an important method for verifying the key technology of satellite network. Different from OPNET, we propose Semi-physical Simulation. Semi-physical simulation nodes and mobile nodes are connected with each other according to satellite constellation. The semi-physical node controls the interface of Ethernet according to the satellite orbit and simulates the handoff of ISL, and so changes the topology of satellite network. Semi-physical Simulation help to the research of satellite network routing protocol. Compared with software simulation, the reliability of Semi-physical Simulation is much higher.Research results in this paper give some explorations about OBS and satellite network simulation. We can make good use of the results in satellite network research. Meanwhile, the results can also give some supports for the realization of OBS as well as the simulation of satellite network protocol.