A VLSI crossbar switch with wrapped wave front arbitration

Crossbar switch is a key component of communication switches used in networks. Allocation of resources has a direct impact on packet transmission. A poor allocation results in long transmission delays. Hence, switches must include an arbiter that efficiently allocates the crossbar´s resources. In this brief, a novel VLSI CMOS implementation of a high performance wrapped wave front arbitration (WWFA) for crossbar switches is described. Arbitration time is one of the critical factors that affect network performance. WWFA requires a two-dimensional arbitration that incorporates a rotating priority to provide fair arbitration. In this brief, we describe the design and implementation of this arbiter. The arbiter is capable of performing an arbitration in 1.15 ns using 0.5-μm technology, for a 4 × 4 crossbar. We also include the description of interface and crosspoint (CP) control circuitry, i.e., request-acknowledge circuit and CP controller circuit respectively.