A Generalized Markovian Queue to Model an Optical Packet Switching Multiplexer

Packet and burst switching have been proposed for optical networks because they can better accommodate bursty traffic generated by IP applications. In optical packet switching networks the payload and the header of the same packet are conveyed in the same channel, while burst switching networks allow the separate transportation of the payload and the header of the same burst. In this paper we consider an optical packet switching node that assigns arriving packets to channels in a link with c available data channels (wavelengths) and a buffer of L − c size. The paper applies the novel MM ∑K k=1 CPPk /GE/c/L G-queue to model optical packet switching nodes. It is worth emphasizing that our method can be applied to model burst switching nodes as well. Moreover, we show that a model previously presented in the literature is only the special case of our model. Numerical results quantitatively demonstrate that the characteristics (e.g.: burstiness) of the offered traffic have a significant impact on the performance of optical nodes.