Design and implementation of the scalable multicast balanced gamma (BG) switch

The paper presents the design and implementation of a new multicast switch for broadband communications. Using distributed control and modular design, the multicast balanced gamma (BG) switch features a scalable, high performance architecture for unicast, multicast and combined traffic under both uniform and non-uniform traffic conditions. The important design characteristic of the switch is that a distributed cell replication function for multicast cells is integrated into the functionality of the switching element (SE) with the self-routing and conflict contention functions. We discuss in detail the design issues associated with the multicast functionality of the switch. VLSI implementation results for the BG switch fabric using 0.18 /spl mu/m CMOS technology are presented. Scalability and performance properties of the multicast BG switch are also briefly discussed.