KSMINs: knockout switch based multistage interconnection networks for high-speed packet switching

Knockout-switch-based multistage interconnection networks (KSMINs) for fast packet switching, combining the well-known knockout switch and the concept of multistage interconnection networks are proposed. The main objective is to reduce the severe pin requirements of large knockout switches through phased address filtering. An approximate Markov chain model of KSMINs is presented to study the performance of KSMINs with different numbers of address filtering phases. The model is shown to be accurate within 5 % for all the cases considered, and within 2 % for the meaningful cases of the buffer sizes ⩾4. For the (256×256) KSMIN, two-phase address filtering based on the (16×16) knockout switches is shown to perform very closely to the single-stage knockout switch for a much-reduced hardware cost