SRI RAMAKRISHNA ENGINEERING COLLEGE

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VATTAMALAIPALAYAM, N.G.G.O. COLONY POST, COIMBATORE – 641
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Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering

20EC215 MICROWAVE & OPTICAL COMMUNICATION

Presented By
1.Raaj Kishor R H(2002151)
No. of Credits : 3 2.Rahul ST(2002152)
3.Rahul Vishva S(2002153)

* MP-1 1
 OPTICAL BURST SWITCHING

INTRODUCTION:

One of the most common types of optical switches is the electro-optic switch, which
uses an electrical signal to control the routing of an optical signal. Another type is the
micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) switch, which uses tiny movable mirrors to
redirect light. There are also all-optical switches, which use the optical properties of
materials to control the routing of optical signals.

The figure-1 depicts evolution of optical switching techniques. As shown it

consists of following techniques.
 OCS-Optical Circuit Switching
 OBS-Optical Burst Switching
 OPS-Optical Packet Switching
 OPTICAL BURST SWITCHING

OPTICAL BURST SWITCHING:

Optical burst switching (OBS) is an optical networking technique that allows dynamic
sub-wavelength switching of data. OBS is viewed as a compromise between the yet
unfeasible full optical packet switching (OPS) and the mostly static optical circuit switching
(OCS). It differs from these paradigms because OBS control information is sent separately in
a reserved optical channel and in advance of the data payload.

These control signals can then be processed electronically to allow the timely setup of an
optical light path to transport the soon-to-arrive payload. This is known as delayed
reservation.
 OPTICAL BURST SWITCHING

Main Features Of Optical Burst Switching:

 Bursty traffic handling: OBS is designed to handle bursty traffic in the network.
Unlike other network technologies, where traffic flows are continuous and predictable,
OBS traffic flows are characterized by a series of bursts that arrive at irregular
intervals.

 All-optical switching: OBS uses all-optical switching technology, which means that
data is transmitted in its optical form without being converted to electrical form. This
helps to reduce the latency and improve the efficiency of the network.

 Quality of service (QoS) support: OBS supports QoS, which allows network
administrators to prioritize traffic and allocate network resources accordingly. This
helps to ensure that critical traffic, such as real-time video or voice, receives the
necessary bandwidth and is not affected by delays or congestion.

 Resource reservation: OBS uses a resource reservation protocol to allocate network

resources and reserve bandwidth for incoming bursts. This helps to avoid contention
and ensure that each burst receives the necessary resources to be transmitted without
delay.
 OPTICAL BURST SWITCHING

 Limited buffer requirements: OBS requires only a limited buffer capacity, which helps
to reduce the cost and complexity of the network. This is because the bursts are
transmitted as soon as the necessary resources are available, without the need for
extensive buffering.
 Scalability: OBS is highly scalable and can support a large number of users and high-
speed data transfer rates. This makes it an ideal technology for high-performance
computing and other applications that require high-speed data transfer over wide-area
networks.
 OPTICAL BURST SWITCHING

Time Efficiency:
 The time efficiency of an optical switching technology refers to the percentage of
time that the network is actively transmitting data. In other words, it is the ratio of the
time that the network is transmitting data to the total time, including idle time and
overhead.

 OBS aims to achieve a balance between the time efficiency of OCS and the flexibility of
OPS. OBS uses a burst assembly mechanism to group packets into bursts and transmits
them in a single burst, which reduces the header overhead and improves the time
efficiency.

 In general, the time efficiency of OBS depends on various factors, such as the burst size,
burst rate, packet size, packet interarrival time, and the network topology. Therefore, it is
important to carefully design and optimize the OBS system to achieve the best time
efficiency while meeting the QoS requirements.
 OPTICAL BURST SWITCHING

Advantages of OBS:
 High bandwidth: OBS is capable of handling high-speed data transfer rates, making
it suitable for applications that require large amounts of bandwidth. OBS can support
data rates of up to several terabits per second.

 Low latency: Since OBS uses all-optical switching technology, it can achieve low
latency, which is critical for real-time applications such as video conferencing, online
gaming, and financial trading.

 Efficient resource utilization: OBS is designed to efficiently utilize network

resources by dynamically allocating bandwidth to incoming bursts. This helps to
reduce the overall network congestion and improve the efficiency of the network.

 Quality of service (QoS) support: OBS supports QoS, which enables network
administrators to prioritize traffic and allocate resources accordingly. This ensures that
critical traffic, such as real-time video or voice, receives the necessary bandwidth and
is not affected by delays or congestion
 OPTICAL BURST SWITCHING

Disadvantages of OBS:
 Burst contention: One of the main challenges of OBS is burst contention, which
occurs when multiple bursts arrive at the same time and compete for network
resources. This can lead to delays and loss of data.

 Lack of standardization: OBS is still a relatively new technology, and there are no
standard protocols or interfaces for OBS networks. This can make it difficult to
integrate OBS with other network technologies or to ensure interoperability between
different OBS implementations.

 Complexity: OBS networks can be complex to design and implement, requiring

specialized equipment and expertise. This can increase the cost and complexity of the
network.

 Limited network management tools: Compared to other networking technologies,

OBS has limited network management tools available, which can make it challenging
to monitor and troubleshoot the network.
 OPTICAL BURST SWITCHING

Conclusion:

In conclusion, OBS is a promising technology that can potentially overcome the

limitations of OCS and OPS and provide high-speed, low-latency, and cost-effective data
transmission in optical networks. However, further research is needed to address the
challenges associated with OBS and optimize its performance in real-world scenarios.

In OBS, data is transmitted in bursts that are routed through the network using the
control packets. Unlike in OCS, where a dedicated circuit is established before data
transmission and in OPS, where packets are stored and forwarded, OBS does not require
any pre-established paths or packet buffering. This results in faster data transmission and
reduced network complexity and cost.
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