Improving Data Transport over High-Speed Networks

Modern society is becoming increasingly dependent on high-speed communication networks for instant access to information. People now make banking transactions, monitor news and weather, play interactive games, listen to music, and watch real-time video and sports over the Internet. Highspeed broadband access is required to facilitate many of the above applications. Similarly, scientific experiments have now become more dependent on high-speed networks as they move towards the paradigm of distributed computing. As an example, large data sets such as DNA information of micro-organisms may be transferred from remote data warehouses to a computation facility over a backbone grid network (lambda grid) where the data is processed, visualized, and delivered to the scientist. This dissertation investigates how emerging network technologies, namely optical broadband access networks and lambda grids, coupled with efficient protocols at the edge of the network – the end-system – may deliver such emerging applications to the respective users. The dissertation begins by introducing relevant and emerging high-speed network technologies, namely the Passive Optical Network (PON) and lambda grids in Chapter 1. In Chapter 2, the problem of aggregating files from distributed databases at a (grid) computing node over a lambda grid is considered. The challenge is (i) to identify routes (i.e., circuits) in the lambda-grid network along which files should be transmitted and (ii) to schedule the transfers of these files over their respective circuits. In Chapter 3, the broadband access network is considered. We study the challenge of enabling open access in a broadband access network. Open access implies the ability of multiple service