A novel routing protocol in optical burst switching network

Optical burst switching (OBS) pretends to be an intermediate solution for optical networks lying between Optical Circuit Switching (OCS) that nowadays in stage of standardization process and Optical Packet Switching considered as a far-term solution for optical networks. OBS architectures with limited buffering capabilities are sensitive to traffic overloads. In particular, long burst lengths cause an increase of burst contention probability in the network what produces higher burst losses. In this paper, the routing strategy is discussed. The routing problem introduces higher operational complexity since it often needs advanced routing, mechanisms with signalization protocols involved. Nevertheless, the advantage is that it facilely adapts to the changes in the traffic demands. The dimensioning approach fits the node and link capacities,according to the matrix of actual traffic load demands and after such optimization it needs only either a simple shortest path algorithm or similar mechanism. Based on OSPF, a routing protocol fit for the feature of OBS is put forward, the flow of routing is defined, and the mechanism of deflection routing is brought forward, which is validated by network simulation. The result shows that the new routing protocol is better than the current routing protocol.