Considering Optical Metro-Access Networks (limited-area networks) with photonic switching optical nodes, we analyze network performance and the impact of link failure using computer modeling and simulations, when electronic buffering at ingress (client input) is implemented. Mesh and ring topologies are adopted with number of nodes varying from 9 to 36, in regular and quasi-regular topologies. The parameters packet loss fraction and average number of hops are adopted for performance metrics. Use of minimum electronic buffering at ingress is demonstrated to improve access to the optical layer, and necessary to keep the packet loss fraction low and throughput high with low latency. We also show that optical buffering is not necessary for adequate network performance. © 2011 Univ of Zagreb, Graz Univ. 325332Develder, C., Stavdas, A., Neri, F., Solé-Pareta, J., Le Sauze, N., Demeester, P., Benchmarking and viability assessment of optical packet switching for metro networks (2004) J. Lightwave Tech., 22 (11). , NovMartins, I.B., Barbosa, F.R., Moschim, E., A new study on network performance under link failure in ops/obs high-capacity optical networks (2010) Proc. ITU-T Kaleidoscope, , December, Pune, IndiaRamaswami, R., Sivarajan, K.N., (2002) Optical Networks: A Practical Perspective, , Morgan Kaufmann, Academic Press, Boston, USA 2nd EditionMartins, I.B., Barbosa, F.R., Bonani, L.H., Moschim, E., Evaluation of throughput and protection in optically switched metropolitan networks (2010) Photonic Network Communications PNET, (2). , April, DOI: 10.1007/s11107-010-0249-zBonani, L.H., Rudge Barbosa, F., Moschim, E., Arthur, R., Analysis of electronic buffers in optical packet/burst switched mesh networks (2008) Intl. Conference on Transparent Optical Networks-ICTON-2008, , June, Athens, GreeceYao, S., Mukherjee, B., Yoo, S.J., Dixit, S., Unified study of contention resolution in optical packet switching networks (2003) IEEE J. Lightwave Tech., 21 (3), p. 672. , MarchSchupke, D.A., Prinz, R., Capacity efficiency and restorability of path protection and rerouting in wdm networks subject to dual failures (2004) Photonic Network Comm PNET, 8 (2), p. 191. , Springer, Netherlands Sept(2005) Broadband Optical Access Systems Based on Passive Optical Networks (PON), , ITU-T 983.1, JanTomkos, I., Azodolmolky, S., Klonidis, D., Aggelou, M., Margariti, K., Dynamic impairment aware networking for transparent mesh optical networks: Activities of EUProject DICONET (2008) Proc. ICTON'2008, , June, Athens, Greece