To Burst or Circuit Switch?

Abstract

We develop, analyze and then numerically compare performance models of a fast-adapting and centrally controlled form of optical circuit switching (OCS) with a conservative form of optical burst switching (OBS). For the first time, we consider a unified model comprising both: edge buffers at which arriving packets are aggregated and enqueued according to a vacation-type service discipline with nondeterministic set-up times, together with a core network comprising switches arbitrarily interconnected via fibers to allow transmission of packets from an edge buffer to their desired egress point through use of a dynamic signaling process to establish a lightpath, and in the case of OCS, also ackno..