Analysis of reduced rate scheduling for switches with reconfiguration overhead

Hybrid switch architecture with electronic buffering/processing and optical switching fabric is receiving a lot of attention as potential candidate for the design of high-performance and scalable switches/routers. However, the reconfiguration overhead of optical fabrics brings new challenges to system and scheduling algorithm design. For example, speedup is compulsory to make the switch stable; the scheduling rate has to be reduced compare to the traditional slot-by-slot scheduling in electronic switch. This paper provides instructions on how to choose speedup, scheduling algorithm and holding time. Main results include: 1) a speedup of 2 ensures switch stability and is cost-effective; 2) effect of reconfiguration delay is exaggerated at high traffic load and it is worth using complex scheduling algorithm; and 3) AVERAGE holding method performs better under most traffic scenarios.