Optical flow-switched transport layer protocol simulation and analysis

We explore a hybrid approach as means to eliminate burst errors at transport layer for reliable and high performance communication in Optical Flow Switching (OFS) networks. Previously, there have been several suggestions at different network layers to minimize the damage caused by burst errors, but there has not been an effort to bring them together. We show that the hybrid approach of adiabatic switching at the physical layer and File Segmentation / Burst error correction at the transport layer is able to eliminate the majority of burst errors. This remaining errors will be corrected by an ARQ. First, we develop a stochastic model to characterize transients that produce burst errors. Next, we develop a simulation framework to validate the model. Finally, we show that the hybrid approach shows superior performance compared to the approaches used individually. This hybrid approach is promising as it is cost-effective and easily implementable.