Performance of fault-tolerant sorting network for ATM switching

This paper proposes a self-routing fault-tolerant sorting network that employs an enhanced scheme of the Batcher sorting network. It consists of two Batcher sorting planes with links provided at every stage to allow cell transfer to and from each sorting network, thereby offering multiple paths between each input-output pair and giving a high degree of fault-tolerance and overcoming the single path limitation of the Batcher sorting network. The proposed fault-tolerant sorting network offers high fault-tolerance; low and fixed amount of delay; maintenance of cell sequence; simple routing; and regularity and modularity. Expressions for reliability, mean time to failure, and availability are derived and the numerical results show that the proposed fault-tolerant sorting network has superior performance as compared to Batcher and parallel Batcher sorting networks. Using simulations, we have shown that the proposed fault-tolerant sorting network has a high probability of survival under a faulty environment. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.