Partitioned Crossbar Switch with Multiple Input/Output Buffers

摘要

PURPOSE: A division-type crossbar switch including a multiple input/output buffer is provided to perform switching distributively by using a plurality of switch elements rather than one switch element, in a structure basically including a buffer storing cells in an input terminal through VOQ(Virtual Output Queueing), so as to reduce a contention rate in the input terminal and an output terminal and provide better performance than an existing input buffer-type switch. CONSTITUTION: An input buffer(701) classifies cells reached through input ports according to output ports to store the cells in a type of VOQ, and detects whether a cell exists in each VOQ, if exists, to deliver a request vector including information of a transfer request of '1', and if not exist, to deliver a request vector including information of a non-transfer request of '0'. A number N of (N/L)*M crossbar switch elements(706) are provided, wherein each i-th element connects the input ports from N(i-1)/L+1 to Ni/L to each i-th buffer of all the output ports in case the number of the input ports and output ports are respectively N and M. An arbitrator(705) is allocated to each crossbar switch element(706) one by one, to solve a problem of matching to L outputs from N/L inputs and set the crossbar switch elements(706) according to solved results. An output buffer(707) stores and manages cells passing the crossbar switch elements(706), by classifying the cells according to input port information of the cells, traffic classes of the cells, and flows of the cells. And a scheduler(709) is allocated to each output port one by one, to manage L output buffers(707) and schedule the cells included in the L output buffers(707) by considering a QoS(Quality of Service).