Periodic time slot scheduling in unbuffered interconnection networks

The use of unbuffered interconnection networks is suggested for interconnecting optical fiber local area networks. Control is based on a schedule in which slots in time-periodic frames are assigned to input-output paths. A blocking interconnection network typically has fewer increased transmission rates to support equal load. This tradeoff is investigated. A special class of interconnection networks that includes omega blocking networks is defined. A simple algorithm is presented for scheduling uniform load consisting of one slot for each input-output path in a frame with number of slots equal to the network size. Loads that are not necessarily uniform but that total at each input and output to a number of slots equal to the network size are generated at random for omega networks of three sizes, and results obtained using two scheduling heuristics are summarized