Shortest Path Prioritized Random Deflection Routing (SP-PRDR) in Optical Burst Switched Networks

Optical Burst Switching (OBS) aims to provide higher utilization and flexibility than circuit switching at a lower cost and complexity than the current optical paradigm of multiple Optical-Electronic-Optical conversions. We introduce a new routing protocol for Optical Burst Switching, Shortest Path Prioritized Random Deflection Routing (SP-PRDR), that aims to lower blocking probabilities for all ranges of input loads, topologies and routing matrices while only using state information from traditional Internet Protocol technologies. We show, through analysis and simulation, that blocking probability in OBS networks is significantly reduced by SP-PRDR, with negligible impact on average delay. Additionally, unlike other schemes, we show that the worst case blocking probability of SP-PRDR is provably upper-bounded by the blocking probability of standard OBS.