Nonblocking multi-channel switching in ATM networks

Multi-channel switches have been proposed and studied in the literature [1] [2] [4], as a means of alleviating the processing speed constraint of electronic switches. Multi-channel switches can provide higher performance (e.g., throughput, cell loss probability, delay) by exploiting the concept of channel grouping. Instead of being routed to a specific output channel, a cell is routed to any channel belonging to an appropriate channel group which may be defined as a collection of channels transmitted over a single optical fiber. The main goal of this paper is to develop a switching paradigm that accomplishes multi-channel switching as a generalization of single-channel switching paradigms that are currently prevalent. The resulting architecture must maintain the required features of single-channel switching (such as multicasting, and simplicity in hardware) while providing the advantages of multi-channel switching (such as multi-rate and super-rate switching, and higher performance).