Two efficient packet aggregation mechanisms and QoS support in a slotted dual bus optical ring network

In this paper, a novel approach for efficiently supporting IP packets directly into a slotted optical wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) layer with several quality of service (QoS) requirements is presented and analyzed. The approach is based on two main features. First, an aggregation cycle is performed at fixed time intervals by assembling several IP packets into a single macro-packet of fixed size, called an aggregate packet. Second, since IP packets have variable size, the aggregation process may allow or not the segmentation of an IP packet if it does not fit into the remaining gap in the aggregate packet. As a key element of our proposition, an efficient QoS support access mechanism is presented. The new QoS control performs aggregation in a loop manner by always beginning the aggregation cycle with the highest priority class. The aggregation cycle ends if the aggregate packet cannot accommodate more IP packets, or if the lowest priority class is reached. We introduce two analytical models that allow us to evaluate the effectiveness of the aggregation technique with and without segmentation. On the other hand, a third analytical model is presented to analyze the standard case (where no aggregation is performed), and comparisons between the three models are carried out. The aggregation models are validated by simulations, and the effect of self-similarity is also analyzed. The application of the proposed approach takes place in a slotted dual bus optical ring network (SDBORN), where we prove that a good fairness and high bandwidth efficiency are achieved, and that only two QoS classes (real-time and non-real-time classes) at the access interface (IP domain) are sufficient in order to fulfill the strict delay requirements of real-time data traffic.