Performance of a Buffer Between Electronic and All-Optical Networks, Diffusion Approximation Model

We present a model of the edge router between electronic and all optical networks. Arriving electronic packets of variable sizes are stored at a buffer the volume of which is equal to the fixed size of optical packet. When the buffer is filled, its content becomes an optical buffer and dispatched to optical network. To avoid excessive delays, the optical packet is sent also after a specified deadline. The model is based on diffusion approximation and validated by discrete event simulation. Its goal is to determine the probability distribution of the effective optical packet sizes an distribution of their interdeparture times as a function of the interarrival time distribution, distribution of the electronic packet sizes, the value of deadline and the size of buffer. We use real traffic data from the CAIDA (Center for Applied Internet Data Analysis) repositories.