Contention resolution and burst grooming strategies in layered optical burst-switched networks

The amount of raw bandwidth available on fiber optic links has increased dramatically with advances in dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) technology. However, existing optical network architectures are unable to fully utilize this bandwidth to support future highly dynamic and bursty traffic. Optical burst switching (OBS) has been proposed as a new paradigm to achieve a practical balance between coarse-grained circuit switching and fine-grained packet switching, hence, better utilizing the available bandwidth.; In this dissertation, we analyze a number of issues involving the development of OBS technology, including reactive and proactive contention resolution mechanisms with service differentiation capability, hardware implementation of the scheduler, and data burst grooming. We also propose OBS as an alternative technology to support computationally intensive Grid applications.; A major problem in OBS networks is contention. We introduce a new approach called Look-ahead Contention Resolution to reduce packet loss in OBS networks, while supporting quality-of-service. We also propose a scalable hardware architecture, which can be used for implementing our developed contention resolution algorithm.; An alternative scheme to reduce contention is a proactive contention resolution mechanism. Our proposed feedback-based scheme can effectively improve network performance by adjusting the burst transmission rate at each node according to the network status.; An important issue in packet aggregation and generating data bursts in OBS networks is to reduce the padding overhead. Padding overhead is required when bursts are released before they reach their minimum length requirement. We introduce the concept of data burst grooming and develop two grooming algorithms to reduce padding overhead and thus, enhance network performance.; The evolution of OBS technology highly depends on its ability in supporting diverse applications. We introduce a general OBS framework, which can be implemented within the context of the layered Grid architecture.; We believe that the above contributions have addressed a number of fundamental issues facing practical development of OBS networks in order to be considered for future deployments.