Designing and implementing a fast crossbar scheduler

Author

Gupta, Pankaj ; McKeown, Nick

Author_Institution

Dept. of Comput. Sci., Stanford Univ., CA, USA

Volume

19

Issue

1

fYear

1999

Firstpage

20

Lastpage

28

Abstract

Crossbar switches frequently function as the internal switching fabric of high performance network switches and routers. However, for fairness and high utilization, a crossbar needs an intelligent, centralized scheduler. We describe the design and implementation of a scheduling algorithm for configuring crossbars in input queued switches that support virtual output queues and multiple priority levels of unicast and multicast traffic. We carried out this design for Stanford University´s Tiny Tera prototype, a fast, label-swapping packet switch. Its scheduler, designed to configure a crossbar once every 51 ns, implements the ESLIP scheduling algorithm, which consists of multiple round-robin arbiters

Keywords

computer interfaces; multicast communication; packet switching; scheduling; telecommunication network routing; telecommunication switching; telecommunication traffic; ESLIP; Tiny Tera prototype; crossbar switches; fast crossbar scheduler; high performance network switches; input queued switches; intelligent centralized scheduler; label-swapping packet switch; multicast traffic; multiple priority levels; network routers; round-robin arbiters; scheduling algorithm; unicast traffic; virtual output queues; Algorithm design and analysis; Fabrics; Multiprotocol label switching; Packet switching; Prototypes; Scheduling algorithm; Switches; Telecommunication traffic; Traffic control; Unicast;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Micro, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0272-1732

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/40.748793

Filename

748793