Switching method for multistage interconnection networks with hot spot traffic

摘要

A method of switching data packets through a multistage interconnection network (MIN), to prevent hot spot traffic from degrading uniform traffic performance. Each of the address bits in each packet determine the output link (15a,15b) at each particular stage (16) of the network to which the packet must be routed. A packet is accepted at an input buffer (14a,14b) of the stage only if an acceptance test is met. This acceptance test depends not only on the availability of a buffer at the input buffer at a stage of the network, but also on how the address bits of the packet are related to address bits of other packets in the buffer, and on the stage of the network. If the acceptance test is not met, the packet is retained in the previous stage of the MIN, and is moved to the rear of a queue of packets in the buffer at that stage, or given a lower priority in the queue.