A Loop-Structured Switching Network

This paper describes a novel loop-structured switching network (LSSN) intended for highly parallel processing architectures. With L loops, it can connect up to N = L* log2 L pairs of transmitting and receiving devices using only N/2 two-by-two switching elements; thus, it is very cost-effective in terms of its component count. Its topology resembles that of the indirect binary n-cube network, but a much higher device-to-switch ratio is achieved because all the links between the switches could be used as both transmitting and receiving stations. It has the advantage of incremental extensibility, and-it could avoid store-and-forward deadlocks (SFD) which prevail in other recirculating packet-switched networks. Our simulation studies show that the average throughput rate and delay of LSSN are close to that of other designs despite its relatively low component count.