KSMINs: knockout switch-based multistage interconnection networks for high-speed packet switching

We propose knockout switch-based multistage interconnection networks (KSMINs) for fast packet switching, combining the well-known knockout switch and the concept of multistage interconnection networks. The main objective is to reduce the severe pin requirements of large knockout switches through a phased address filtering. We present an approximate Markov-chain model of KSMINs to study the performance of KSMINs with different numbers of address-filtering phases. The model is shown to be accurate within 5% for all the cases considered and within 20% for the meaningful cases of the buffer sizes ⩾4. For the (256×256) KSMIN, two-phase address filtering based on the (16×16) knockout switches is shown to perform very closely to the single-stage knockout switch for a reduced hardware cost