Fault tolerance of a large-scale multicast output buffered ATM switch

In the paper, the fault detection, fault location, and reconfiguration schemes for a large-scale multicast output buffered ATM switch (MOBAS) are proposed. The architecture of the MOBAS has a regular and uniform structure and, thus, has the advantages of: (1) easy expansion due to the modular structure, (2) high integration density for VLSI implementation, (3) relaxed synchronization for data and clock signals, and (4) building the center switch fabric with a single type of chip. It is difficult to achieve fault tolerance in binary self-routing networks without adding additional switching planes, stages, or switching elements in order to have multiple paths due to their characteristics of a unique routing path between any input and output pair. However, since the MOBAS intrinsically has multiple paths between any input and output, it is inherently robust for faults without need to add any additional switching elements. The fault-tolerance of the MOBAS is shown through the performance analysis of the MOBAS under various fault conditions