Novel scheduling algorithm for hybrid buffer structured optical packet switch

We propose a novel scheduling algorithm for the optical packet switch (OPS) with a hybrid buffer consisting of a fiber delay line (FDL) buffer and a shared electronic buffer, for contention resolution of asynchronous variable length packets. By employing the end of each channel together with the time intervals between the scheduled packets of each channel in the output line, simulation results showed that packet loss might be reduced significantly, resulting in a powerful reduction of the number of FDLs in the hybrid buffer. Also, the optimum number of electronic buffer inputs/outputs accompanied by O/E/O conversion was confirmed to be obtained for various loads.