Performance improvement of an internally blocking optical packet/burst switch

Optical packet/burst switching is considered a promising technique to improve the performance of optical networks. Key components in these technologies are the optical switching nodes. Some of these node architectures suffer from internal blocking. Synchronous operation allows overcoming most of the problems introduced by this internal blocking. However, in asynchronous networks internal blocking can have a more pronounced effect. In this paper we propose a windowing technique to improve the performance of internally blocking optical switching nodes in asynchronous operation. Simulations will show that significant improvements can be made.