Cost-effective combination of contention resolution/avoidance schemes in bufferless slotted OPS networks

Contention is a major problem for Optical Packed Switched (OPS) networks. Many studies have shown that to obtain a very small optical packet loss rate, a large number of specific contention resolution or contention avoidance hardware must be used. However, this may not be so cost-effective. Instead of using the same technique to achieve a very low packet loss rate, the idea of this paper is to use the combination of different contention avoidance and contention resolution schemes, but using a lower amount of each scheme, to reduce packet loss rate in slotted bufferless OPS networks. A number of cost-effective contention resolution and avoidance schemes are studied in order to decrease traffic loss and increase TCP throughput as a result. Designing a multi-fiber architecture that uses inexpensive shared-per-node wavelength converters and additional drop-ports can significantly reduce network-wide traffic loss. The lost traffic can also be retransmitted in the optical domain in order to have a loss-free OPS network. A cost model is also provided to obtain cost-effective combinations of fibers, wavelength converters and drop ports under a desirable TCP throughput and investment on network hardware. The effectiveness of the combined contention avoidance and resolution schemes are demonstrated under Internet traffic.