On designing of a new simulation platform for crossbar-based scheduling algorithms

Crossbar architecture has obtained popularity in high performance network switches and IP routers. For fairness and high utilization, a crossbar needs supporting scheduling algorithms. In this paper, the design and implementation of a new software simulation platform for testing crossbar-based scheduling algorithms is presented. Using object-oriented programming, each part of the platform is closely modeled after its hardware counterpart. The platform has many desirable features such as explicit data flows, online calculation, flexible configuration, high speed as well as a set of commonly used built-in algorithms. Simulation results of well-known algorithms on this platform closely match theoretical analysis and previous work. It can be a powerful and promising tool in future research in this field.