Dual-fiber optical burst switching network: A novel architecture for metropolitan area networks

Fiber optic rings are widely deployed in metropolitan area networks (MAN). These rings currently employ architectures and protocols that are neither optimized for nor scalable to the network demand. Therefore, emerging technologies are being pushed to replace the traditional architectures. Among these technologies, optical burst switching (OBS) is an effective and promising technology. In this study, a novel architecture, dual-fiber OBS (DOBS), is proposed. This architecture has similar functions to those of fiber delay lines, partial wavelength conversion and deflection routing. A theoretical model is developed to evaluate the performance of DOBS, which is compared with single-fiber and simple two-fiber schemes by introducing them into ring and mesh MAN in simulations. The results reveal that DOBS can exponentially reduce the burst dropping probability. Moreover, since DOBS can be implement using commercially available devices and dark fibers, it is commercially viable in metro networks.