Optical burst and packet switching: node and network design, contention resolution and quality of service

Future network should be able to efficiently serve packet-based networks, such as the Internet. In this paper, based on results from COST 266, we explore characteristics of optical burst switching (OBS) and optical packet switching (OPS). Both node design and metropolitan area network (MAN) are discussed. A unique joint comparative performance evaluation of contention resolution in OBS and OPS are presented, as well as methods of quality of service (QoS) differentiation in OBS/OPS networks, and their performance.