This paper describes a distributed connection control protocol for an experimental ATM switch fabric.A switch fabric is a multistage interconnection network with path search,resource allocation and path marking (the so called connection control functions).The switch fabric which will be described here is based on decentralized connection control functions within a multistage interconnection network.All actions of the presented connection control protocol are starting from the originating side of a connection,even for the connection release operation.Dead ends,i.e.erroneous terminating or broken connections,are detected with dedicated "explorer" and "maintenance" cells,whatever the reason of the problem may have been.The proposed connection control protocol treats point to point and point to muitipoint connections in a similar way and is protected against cell loss,which is a natural event in ATM networks.We focus also on the maintenance aspects of this kind of switch fabric architecture.In particular,the distributed static load control mechanism and the marking of virtual connections are protected by a background restitution process.
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