Failure Influence: Robustness Measure for Scalable Switch Fabric

As scalable routers being a promising way to scale to higher capacity, scalable switch fabric as its key component has received a great deal of attention. However, the reliability calculation method for general switch fabric does not suit scalable switch fabrics with special features. In this paper, we study the features of scalable switch fabrics, and propose a novel reliability measure called Failure Influence which focuses on the robustness of scalable switch fabric. Using our improved heuristic algorithms, we analyze the Failure Influence properties of some classical topologies and compare them with Plus 2^i (P2i) of our prior work. Experimental results show that P2i has better Failure Influence properties. Since the Peak Point Problem (PPP) of P2i, Add Edge P2i (AE-P2i) and Failure Influence Optimal P2i (FO-P2i) are also proposed to solve this problem.