A 160-Gb/s ATM switch prototype using the concentrator-based growable switch architecture

We describe the theory, design and implementation of a 2.5-Gb/s ATM switch growable to very large sizes, say 512/spl times/512 (1.28 Tb/s capacity), using a concentrator-based growable switch architecture. This architecture is based on a front-end concentrator-based cell distribution network followed by fixed-size ATM output switches. The front-end concentrator arrangement provides FIFO cell distribution with practical modularity and negligible cell loss. The ATM output switches are small-size shared memory designs that ensure optimal delay throughput performance for arbitrary traffic patterns. Our prototype consists of a complete and independent 2.5-Gb/s 8/spl times/8 ATM switch system with optical 2.4-Gb/s OC-48c and 155 Mb/s OC-3c interfaces, and also an expansion module (half shelf) capable of supporting eight such 8/spl times/8 switch systems yielding a total prototype capacity of 160 Gb/s.