Modelling of control plane in OBS networks

In this paper we address the problem of control plane operation and its impact on the performance of optical burst switching networks (OBS). In a poorly-engineered network the congestion in control plane may delay excessively the processing of control packets in an electronic core-node controller and as a result lead to the loss of data bursts. In order to approach this outcome effectively a queuing model of control plane operation has to be studied. First we discuss several factors that have an impact on the control plane operation. Then for an exemplary OBS system we propose two queueing models which show some relations between its parameters.