Scalability study of self-routing packet switch fabrics for very large scale broadband ISDN central offices

The authors examine the issues concerning the scalability of Batcher/banyan networks to architectures suitable for large broadband central offices. Their intent is to provide a first-round objective comparison of alternative switch architectures based on Batcher/banyan technologies which can provide 1 Tb/s of raw bandwidth. Scaling issues associated with large central office switching fabrics are examined. Device count is used as a measure to compare the complexity of each architecture. This provides a relative measure of the physical size and the power requirements that can be expected from each approach. All configurations assume the use of compact three-dimensional packaging and custom VLSI circuits to minimize size and connectivity constraints