Mike Pratt, Advanced Networking Research, MCNC-RDI
Optical Burst Switching (OBS) is emerging as an optical networking technology combining best of the features of optical circuit-switching technology and optical packet-switching technology. This paper discusses architecture and hardware implementation of a Network Interface Card (NIC) for an OBS network. The NIC implements a specific low-latency signaling protocol Just-in-Time (JIT) for OBS networks. This NIC can handle data streams up to 1 Gbps. Average OBS JIT signaling message processing time with this NIC is on the order of 1 microsecond. This is the first JIT OBS NIC implementation known to the authors. Complementary efforts are on-going to develop other elements for the OBS network.
Citation:
Mrugendra Singhai, Pronita Mehrotra, Patrick Hamilton, Mike Pratt, Mark Cassada, Dan Stevenson, "A High Speed Network Interface Card for Optical Burst Switched Networks," broadnets, pp.14-23, First International Conference on Broadband Networks (BROADNETS'04), 2004