A reservation protocol for broadcast WDM networks and stability analysis

We consider the problem of coordinating access to the various channels of a single-hop wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) network. We present a hi gh performance reservation (HiPeR-l) protocol specifically designed to over come the potential inefficiencies of operating in environments with non-neg ligible processing, tuning? and propagation delays. HiPeR-l differs from pr evious reservation protocols in that each control packet makes reservations for all data packets waiting in a node's queues, thus significantly reduci ng control overhead. Packets are scheduled for transmission using algorithm s that can effectively mask the tuning times. HiPeR-l also uses pipelining to mask processing times and propagation delays, parameter l of the protoco l is used to control the degree of pipelining. We use Markov chain theory t o obtain a sufficient condition for the stability of the protocol. The stab ility condition provides insight into the factors affecting the operation o f the protocol, such as the degree of load balancing across the various cha nnels, and the quality of the scheduling algorithms. The analysis is fairly general, as it holds for MMBP-like arrival processes with any number of st ates, and for non-uniform destinations. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.