Algorithms for burst rescheduling in WDM optical burst switching networks

Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) is a promising technology for realizing terabit networks. Optical burst switching (OBS) is a way to efficiently support bursty traffic on WDM-based optical Internet networks. In OBS networks, the control (header) and payload (data) components of a burst are sent separately with a time gap. The control packet first traverses the burst switching nodes and reserves suitable wavelengths on the links for the corresponding data burst by using a scheduling algorithm. Our work is motivated from the observation that the existing scheduling algorithm's either have low computational complexity or high performance in terms of burst dropping probability, but not both simultaneously. Since the arrival of bursts is dynamic, it is highly desirable that the scheduling is done as quickly as possible. We develop scheduling algorithms which integrate the merits of both low computational complexity and high burst dropping performance. The key idea is to reschedule an existing burst by assigning a new wavelength to it keeping the burst arrival and leaving time unchanged in order to accommodate the new burst. We propose computationally simple rescheduling algorithms called on-demand burst rescheduling and aggressive burst rescheduling. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithms and the signaling overhead are studied through simulation experiments. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.