Abstract
High-speed optical networks based on wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) promise to deliver extremely high bandwidth to both integrated broadband ATM networking and massively-parallel-processor (MPP) interconnection. As the bandwidth of the interconnecting WDM fiber channels increases, the burden placed on the optical switching fabric also increases, since the bandwidth of these wavelength channels can easily saturate the switching capacity of the fastest optical switch. To alleviate the switching bottleneck we need to remove the inherent inefficiency in conventional packet-switch design, such that we can easily provide gigabit-per-second bandwidth to each end user in a populated ATM networking environment and to communicating processors in an MPP interconnection. The fundamental problem with traditional switch design is the close coupling between switching and routing functions in the switch fabric. Data packets entering a switching node are first examined on their header fields, to determine to which output ports they need to be routed, before the switch is properly set to support the routing. Evidently, some of the routing required by the incoming packets is merely traversing or bypassing in nature, i.e., packets coming in and going out without switching ports. For this type of redundant routing the data packets are forced to consume the precious switching bandwidth at the switch fabric. We need to decouple these two functions so that switching and routing can be performed concurrently, instead of sequentially as in traditional design, to increase the effective bandwidth of the switch fabric (Fig. 1).
© 1994 Optical Society of America
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