Impacts of packet filling in an optical packet switching architecture

Increase in network traffic and emergence of a variety of applications requiring different QoS necessitate scalable and efficient resource utilization. An appealing solution for backbone networks is the optical packet switching architecture. However technological constraints prevent the deployment of such all-optical solutions. Instead, feasible optic-electrical hybrid systems are gaining importance. In this paper, first we briefly describe such an architecture and then focus on the edge part. More specifically, we focus on the optical packet creation process in the edge. The impacts of this optical packet creation mechanism on the incoming traffic profile are investigated. Finally we show, by exploiting service differentiation, that we can improve the optical packet creation mechanisms and use bandwidth more efficiently.