Feedback Control System for Scheduling of Wide-Area All-Photonic Networks

This paper introduces a feedback control system based on Smith´s principle for bandwidth reservation and scheduling of all-photonic networks with large propagation delay. The approach is also applicable to any single-hop network with significant signalling delay (such as satellite-TDMA systems). Scheduling in wide-area networks must be based on predictions of traffic demand and the resultant errors can lead to instability and unfairness. The feedback control system we propose reduces the effect of prediction errors, increases the speed of the response to the sudden changes in traffic arrival rates, and improves fairness through equalization of queue-lengths.