Performance of multicast in WDM slotted ring networks

Spacial wavelength reuse, or destination stripping, increases the capacity of packet-switched unidirectional and bidirectional ring networks, and promotes them to support multicast traffic. In this paper, an analytical model is developed to evaluate the maximum achievable transmitter throughput (i.e., the capacity) of such networks, in the presence of multicast traffic. Furthermore, the mean access delay of a multicast packet is investigated by means of an approximate approach. The approach is based on the discrete Geom/Geom/1 queue and on the computation of blocking probabilities. The analysis is validated by simulations and the impact of self-similar traffic is shown. This work offers an important and simple analytical tool to compare the impact of multicast on access delays and multicast capacity in future slotted ring networks.