Performance evaluation of the input and output buffered knockout switch

Various ATM switches have been proposed since Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) was recognized as appropriate for implementing broadband integrated services digital network (BISDN). An ATM switching network may be evaluated on two sides : traffic performances (maximum throughput, delay, and packet loss probability, etc.) and structural features (complexity, i.e. the number of switch elements necessary to construct the same size switching network, maintenance, modularity, and fault tolerance, etc.). ATM switching networks proposed to date tend to show the contrary characteristics between structural features and traffic performance. The Knockout Switch, which is well known as one of ATM switches, shows a good traffic performance but it needs so many switch elements and buffers. In this paper, we propose an input and output buffered Knockout Switch for the purpose of reducing the number of switch elements and buffers of the existing Knockout Switch. We analyze the traffic performance and the structural features of the proposed switching architecture through a discrete time Markov chain and compare with those of the existing Knockout Switch. It was found that the proposed architecture could reduce more than 40 percent of switch elements and more than 30 percent of buffers under a given requirement of cell loss probability of the switch.