Scheduling for input-queued packet switches by a re-configurable parallel match evaluator

A parallel match evaluator (PE) selects the most productive match for an input-queued (IQ) switch among several tested. However, current PE-based approaches use N fixed permutations out of possible N!, where N is the number of switch ports. A fixed permutation represents a permanent match between the inputs and outputs. To improve switching performance, this letter proposes a re-configurable PE (RPE) where permutations are selected according to traffic pattern, queue occupancy, or queuing times. This letter shows the performance improvement achieved with the proposed RPE.