Optical packet switching under self-similar arrivals

Optical Packet Switching is a current research topic targeted to replace Optical Circuit Switching systems to provide higher efficiencies in bandwidth utilization through statistical multiplexing. We explore an analytical model representing an optical packet switch under Markovian arrivals utilizing Dense Wave Division Multiplexing internally and externally. The analytical model shows that by utilizing dense wave division multiplexing within the switch the number of buffer positions is reduced. A discrete event simulation was constructed and validated against the analytic model. A self-similar input distribution was introduced into the simulation model. A record of the cell loss probability versus buffer depth per lambda-channel is kept for each model. It is found that, for self-similar traffic which matches first order statistics of Markovian traffic, the cell loss probability is orders of magnitude higher and the number of buffer positions necessary is much higher.