Rattlesnake: A Multimedia ATM Switching System. Architecture and Design

摘要

This paper describes the architecture and design of the Rattlesnake ATM switch.The main goal of this project is to design a complete network system that uses only one chip per external datalink. In the architecture of an ATM switching system there are a number of closely related issues involved such as buffering, link protocol, buffer scheduling, routing and network topology. To make optimal use of the scarce resources, we use the buffers in a combination with virtual lanes, iterative scheduling and a backpressure link protocol. We use a Kautz graph as the interconnection topology of the switching fabric. It makes our switching system modular extensible and fault tolerant. The Rattlesnake system uses switch level replication for efficient multicast and broadcast. We rely on the intelligence of the ATM stations (or its network interface) for the upper layer protocols.