Analysis of delay variation with burst size and traffic utilization level in optical burst switching in the presence of aggregate self-similar traffic

Considering that optical networking is still in early stages of its evolution, Optical Burst Switching (OBS) is widely recognized as the most feasible data forwarding mechanism for the next generation Optical Internet. One important aspect to note here is that OBS can be realized using currently available optical technology. OBS forwards data in a form of bursts of packets assembled and disassembled in the electrical domain, in order to overcome the barrier of nonavailability of optical memory. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the adverse effects of higher burst sizes and lower levels of aggregate traffic utilization on average queue delay in the electrical domain, in the presence of aggregate self-similar traffic. Such a situation can be found in an internet environment using Differentiated Service (DiffServ) architecture. Absolute adverse effects are highlighted as a single metric of average delay by not using packet policing mechanism, similar to a token bucket, at the entrance of a network