A multiservice switch architecture for broadband packet networks

A class of switching architectures is described to perform the switching function in a connectionless multiservice network environment. The structure is a multistage arrangement of unbuffered switching elements that exploits the packet self-routing technique by attaching a self-routing tag to each packet. Thus, owing to such a distributed processing capability, it is capable of carrying loads typical of a broadband environment. This structure is suitable to be adopted both as the connectionless server of ATM switching nodes and as a switching node of a fully connectionless broadband network. Both point-to-point and multipoint connections can be supported by the switch, since the architecture is capable of performing packet replication by means of a cost-effective solution