In this work, we study an asynchronous optical packet/burst switching node equipped with a number of limited range wavelength converters shared per output link. A wave-length conversion policy is one by which the outgoing wavelength for an optical packet is selected if its incoming wavelength is in use. Through simulations, we show that the so-called "far conversion" policy in which the optical packet is switched onto the farthest available wavelength in the tuning range, outperforms the other policies we studied. We point out the "clustering effect" in the use of wavelengths to explain this phenomenon.

In this paper, we study the blocking probabilities in a wavelength division multiplexing-based asynchronous bufferless optical packet/burst switch equipped with a bank of tuneable wavelength converters dedicated to each output fiber line. Wavelength converter sharing, also referred to as partial wavelength conversion, corresponds to the case of a number of converters shared amongst a larger number of wavelength channels. In this study, we present a probabilistic framework for exactly calculating the packet blocking probabilities for optical packet/burst switching systems utilizing wavelength converter sharing. In our model, packet arrivals at the optical switch are first assumed to be Poisson and later generalized to the more general Markovian arrival process to cope with very general traffic patterns whereas packet lengths are assumed to be exponentially distributed. As opposed to the existing literature based on approximations and/or simulations, we formulate the problem as one of finding the steady-state solution of a continuous-time Markov chain with a block tridiagonal infinitesimal generator. To find such solutions, we propose a numerically efficient and stable algorithm based on block tridiagonal LU factorizations. We show that exact blocking probabilities can be efficiently calculated even for very large systems and rare blocking probabilities, e.g., systems with 256 wavelengths per fiber and blocking probabilities in the order of 10-40. Relying on the stability and speed of the proposed algorithm, we also provide a means of provisioning wavelength channels and converters in optical packet/burst switching systems.