The author investigates the general problem of multicast routingin the three-stage Clos switching network, with point-to-point routingas a special case. An optimal and a heuristic algorithm have beendesigned and tested. The results show that the heuristic algorithm canfind multicast routes that are close to optimal within a response timethat is significantly lower than that of the optimal algorithm. Furtheranalysis of the experimental data suggests a hybrid implementation inwhich the optimal and heuristic algorithms are run in parallel with aset time limit. The algorithms and the discussion provided also apply toother networks, including wide-area communication networks, with atwo-hop structure
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