On the simulation of optical burst switched networks with self-similar traffic sources

This paper is focusing on the performance evaluation of optical burst switched (OBS) networks. More specifically we present a simulation framework based on OPNET modeler developed to evaluate the performance of an OBS network in the presence of self-similar traffic. The effect that the self-similar traffic sources and specific design parameters have on the network performance is examined. The network performance is assessed in terms of burst assembly delay, burst assembly delay jitter, and burst loss ratio. Our work has shown that the performance metrics under consideration have a strong dependency on parameters such as number of packets per burst, assembly timeout, number of available wavelengths and the degree of the traffic self-similarity. The scenario under study is that of an OBS star network.