A data Mirroring technique for SANs in a Metro WDM sectioned ring

Abstract

This paper introduces a new data mirroring technique for storage area networks (SANs) in a metropolitan area wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) sectioned ring scenario. Performance is evaluated through simulation of a network with 16 nodes, 4 wavelengths, 1 Gb/s access node rate and 5 Gb/s SAN node rate under different asymmetries of both Poisson and self-similar traffic. Results of average node throughput, queuing delay and transmission buffer packet dropping probability are presented and analyzed. A modified version of the MAC protocol that improves performance in term of mirroring time and bandwidth utilization is introduced and evaluated.