Optical burst switching (OBS) – a new paradigm for an Optical Internet $^{1}$

Abstract

To support bursty traffic on the Internet (and especially WWW) efficiently, optical burst switching (OBS) is proposed as a way to streamline both protocols and hardware in building the future generation Optical Internet. By leveraging the attractive properties of optical communications and at the same time, taking into account its limitations, OBS combines the best of optical circuit‐switching and packet/cell switching. In this paper, the general concept of OBS protocols and in particular, those based on Just‐Enough‐Time (JET), is described, along with the applicability of OBS protocols to IP over WDM. Specific issues such as the use of fiber delay‐lines (FDLs) for accommodating processing delay and/or resolving conflicts are also discussed. In addition, the performance of JET‐based OBS protocols which use an offset time along with delayed reservation to achieve efficient utilization of both bandwidth and FDLs as well as to support priority‐based routing is evaluated.