Analysis of Burst Header Packets in Optical Burst Switching Networks

Optical Burst Switching (OBS) networks provide a practical alternative to optical packet switching and optical circuit switching by separating control information from the primary data, sending the former on a separate control channel. However, this separation also renders OBS networks susceptible to a denial- or degradation-of-service attack (intentional or otherwise) when the data provisioned by a header packet on the control channel does not materialize. This paper addresses the problem of detecting and characterizing such problems and describes a method based on monitoring network traffic on the control and data channels. The method is evaluated on a publicly available dataset.