Fault-tolerant sorting network for ATM switching

The asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) has been accepted as the most promising approach for the broadband integrated services digital network (B-ISDN). This paper proposes a self routing fault-tolerant sorting network that employs an enhanced scheme of the Batcher sorting network. It consists of two Batcher sorting planes with links provided at every stage to allow cell transfer to and from each sorting network, thereby offering multiple paths between each input-output pair and giving a high degree of fault-tolerance and overcoming the single path limitation of the Batcher sorting network. The proposed fault-tolerant sorting network offers high fault-tolerance; low and fixed amount of delay; maintenance of cell sequence; simple routing; and regularity and modularity. Using simulations, we show that the proposed sorting network has a high probability of survival