Large scale multicast ATM switch with input and output link sharing

We propose a novel design of a large scale multicast ATM switch using input and output link sharing. Switch inputs and outputs are grouped into small modules called Input Shared Blocks (ISBs) and Output Shared blocks (OSBs). Link sharing resolves output contention and eliminates the speedup requirement for the central switch fabric. Two scheduling algorithms based on round robin strategy are proposed. Both schemes provide a group mapping from an ISB to an OSB. Scheduling complexity is dramatically reduced. This switch architecture can be easily extended to Terabits capacity. Simulations for a 256×256 switch demonstrate that the proposed switch can achieve a comparable performance as the output queued switch under multicast uniform independent/bursty traffic.