Physical design issues for very large ATM switching systems

The authors examine several issues associated with the physical design of the very-high-throughput (terabit per second) packet switching systems that will be needed to provide ubiquitous broadband services. It is shown that conventional physical design alternatives do not scale well to the high data rates and complex connectivity needed to implement these systems. In particular, conventional interconnection technology alternatives, especially at the backplane level, do not provide adequate intramodule connectivity at the required data rates. An alternative design that uses a three-dimensional architecture is proposed. It provides rich connectivity among the switch functions but requires a anew generation of packaging hardware. The power delivery, thermal management, and other important issues that must be addressed before these large broadband switching systems can be realized are discussed