Dimensioning for in-band and out-of-band signalling protocols in OBS networks

Most of the previous works on optical burst switching (OBS) assume in their analysis that signalling does not affect network performance. It is analysed here, under which conditions the effect of signalling is actually negligible, taking into account the effect of signalling in the evaluation of burst discard probability. First, analytical models for two different signalling approaches in an OBS network are presented: 'out-of-band' and 'in-band' techniques. The impact of these two signalling strategies in terms of the probability of burst discard are evaluated, identifying the component of bursts discarded as a consequence of control message losses or of excessive signalling delay. A new method is also discussed, based on the previous models, to assign the correct amount of resources to the control plane. To verify the accuracy of the analytical results, these are compared with results based on discrete-event simulationns: results are found to be in a highly satisfactory agreement with simulations.