Abstract: A new Wavelength Converters (WCs) sharing scheme for Optical Burst Switching nodes is proposed, which is called Convert-Only-the-Collided-Part(COCP). According to this scheme only the collided part of a burst is converted to another wavelength, so that the utility of WCs can be improved by reducing the time of occupation. Simulations are made to compare the COCP with available Convert-the-Whole-Burst(CWB) schemes in different sharing architectures carrying various service loads. Results show that the burst loss performance of the COCP scheme is better than that of conventional WC sharing schemes based on CWB, in both Share-per-Link(SPL) mode and Share-per-Node(SPN) mode, and therefore the number of required WCs can be greatly reduced.

Key words: optical burst switching, wavelength converter sharing, convert-only-the-collided-part