Effects of Slotted Optical Packet Assembly on End-to-End Performance

This paper refers to the packet assembly mechanism that takes place at the network access points of all-optical packet switched networks. The assembly functions performed within the edge routers are described in the presence of slotted and fixed length optical packets. The aim is to explore the influence on the TCP performance of the main assembly design parameters such as the packet assembly time out and the optical payload capacity. Detailed results obtained through the use of the emph{ns-2} simulator show that a suitable choice of those parameters leads to significant end-to-end performance gains and mitigates the impact of the packet assembly procedures on TCP behavior.