Dual-header signalling for burst-cluster transmission in OBS networks

In this paper, we propose burst-cluster transmission using dual-header signalling for better service differentiation in optical burst switching (OBS). The dual-header signalling decouples the resource reservation process from the service request process in core nodes and allows for delayed scheduling to be implemented. This allows the reservation period of burst clusters to be precisely controlled in core nodes, thus enabling the occupation period to be equal to the burst cluster length. To demonstrate the benefit of delayed scheduling and offset control at core nodes, we evaluate the burst loss probability of a burst cluster transmission system in which the configuration times of nodes in the network core are different. Simulation results show that dual-header burst cluster transmission can achieve better service differentiation in terms of burst loss probability than the conventional (single-header) burst cluster transmission.