Input smoothing with buffering: a new technique for queueing in fast packet switching

Because of the unscheduled nature of arrivals to a packet switch, two or more packets may arrive on different inputs destined for the same output. The switch architecture may allow one of these packets to pass through to the output, but others must be queued for later transmission. The performance of a new approach for providing queueing required to smooth fluctuations in packet arrivals to a high performance packet switch is studied. The new approach, called input smoothing with buffering, will allow the switch to accept a frame of b packets at each of its N inputs in b time slots. These packets are launched to a switch fabric of size Nb×Nb. If k packets destined to one output exceed the number b, k-b packets are stored in a queue assigned for this output inside the switch. This approach outperforms input smoothing and output buffering approaches. Performance issues such as cell loss and packet delay are discussed