1Modeling the Performance of a Multi-Wavelength Optical Buffer: a Round-Robin Approach

Abstract — In this extended abstract, we gather results on the performance of Fiber Delay Line (FDL) buffers, having access to multiple wavelengths on an output fiber. In both optical burst switching (OBS) and optical packet switching (OPS), bursts (or packets) can contend for the same output at the same time, and have to be dealt with. Here, we consider both wavelength conversion and buffering as a means to resolve this contention. By applying an analytical model from a different context, we are able to evaluate performance of a multi-wavelength buffer handling independent arrivals. Several numerical examples assess the accuracy of our approximation, and show that our approach is highly accurate when burst sizes are fixed, and, when a round-robin scheduling policy is adopted, also when burst sizes vary. Index Terms — fiber delay lines, loss probability, multi-server, multi-wavelength, optical buffers, optical switching, OBS, OPS, queueing. I