%0 Journal Article %T A Resource Reservation Protocol with Linear Traffic Prediction for OBS Networks %A Ioannis Karamitsos %A Chris Bowerman %J Advances in Optical Technologies %D 2013 %I Hindawi Publishing Corporation %R 10.1155/2013/425372 %X This paper addresses the issue of providing resource reservation mechanism for OBS networks. We propose a linear prediction mechanism based on least mean square (LMS) method to reduce the burst delay at edge nodes. A reservation method is proposed to increase the reservation probability and to improve the delay reduction performance. 1. Introduction With recent technologies, advanced optical networks are used to support the continuously growing IP traffic as they offer huge capacity. Currently, the optical switching and the optical transport are the most interest topics for study and research. After the legacy of SONET/SDH networks, ITU-T Study Group 15 has published a recommendation G.709 for an optical transport network (OTN). The main idea behind an OTN was to build the transport layer around the old SONET/SDH network, but with less overhead. However, all OTN equipment functionality is based on time slot management and remains incapable of packet or burst recognition. In addition, OTN equipment allows switching at optical layer using reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs). The main function of ROADMs addresses the adding or dropping of wavelength channels in WDM systems using either automated lambda processing or simple optical filter devices offering optical-to-electrical-to-optical (O/E/O) conversion and add/drop capability. However, the need for high performance switching of finer wavelength granularities is driving optical packet switching (OPS) and optical burst switching (OBS), two of the optical processing techniques studied in the last years. OPS provides the finest switching granularity; OBS combines the best characteristic of coarse-grained optical wavelength switching and fine-grained optical packet switching, while avoiding their deficiencies. OBS transfers transparently the data burst while the control packet is processed in the electronic domain. OBS will need no buffering of the data at intermediate nodes as opposed to optical packet switching (OPS) and achieves efficient bandwidth use appropriate for bursty traffic as in OPS. OBS can be considered as an alternative optical transport technology for the next generation of optical Internet [1]. In IP over OBS networks, the Internet traffic needs to support different types of services to provide QoS and traffic engineering. Optical burst switching (OBS) [2] allows switching of data channels in the optical domain, where all the electronic processing is performed at the ingress/egress nodes. The main characteristic of the OBS is that it setup dynamically a wavelength path %U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aot/2013/425372/