Fault diagnosis in Ben¿s switching networks

Faulty switches, broken interswitch connections and certain bridging faults in a Ben¿s switching network can be identified using a sequence of faulty paths across the network. The method described may use on-line faulty-path data and is suitable for use in the diagnosis of intermittent faults. It is shown that a single faulty switch can be identified in less than four random faulty paths on average, after presentation of the initial faulty path. The method applies to other types of switching network and provides a similar performance.