A Bimodal Burst Switching Architecture for Grid Networks Xenia Mountrouidou * Harry G. Perros * Maged Beshai ** * Computer Science Department, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695 {pmountr, hp}@csc.ncsu.edu ** Nortel Networks, Station C, Ottawa, Canada beshai@sympatico.ca June 16, 2005 Abstract We propose and evaluate the Bimodal Burst Switching scheme for OBS star networks which can be used in Grid-Computing networks. It provides high bandwidth, zero burst loss and large geographical coverage, and it outperforms OBS. 1 Introduction Grid-computing refers to massive coordination of computers to offer a pro- cessing gain over a single computer. The Grid is a mechanism (software/ middleware) which allows the use of multiple computers and multiple data sources for general purpose computation [Foster, 2002]. This is already achieved using clusters or distributed computing, but the Grid goes one step further to perform these computations in multiple domains. The main applications of Grids are in e-sciences such as, high-energy physics, biology, environmental science, and engineering. Most of these applications use different scientific methods, simulation and data analysis, modeling and remote sensor data collection. They typically require: large amounts of bandwidth, transfer of large amounts of data reliably without losses, and user initiated end-to-end connections [Karmous-Edwards, 2005]. Additionally Grids may be used in multimedia applications such as distri- bution of HDTV, where real time high bandwidth tranfer of data is needed. 1