Minimizing Internal Speedup for Performance Guaranteed Switches With Optical Fabrics

We consider traffic scheduling in an N times N packet switch with an optical switch fabric, where the fabric requires a reconfiguration overhead to change its switch configurations. To provide 100% throughput with bounded packet delay, a speedup in the switch fabric is necessary to compensate for both the reconfiguration overhead and the inefficiency of the scheduling algorithm. In order to reduce the implementation cost of the switch, we aim at minimizing the required speedup for a given packet delay bound. Conventional Birkhoff-von Neumann traffic matrix decomposition requires N2 - 2N + 2 configurations in the schedule, which lead to a very large packet delay bound. The existing DOUBLE algorithm requires a fixed number of only 2N configurations, but it cannot adjust its schedule according to different switch parameters. In this paper, we first design a generic approach to decompose a traffic matrix into an arbitrary number of Ns (N² - 2N + 2 > N_S > N) configurations. Then, by taking the reconfiguration overhead into account, we formulate a speedup function. Minimizing the speedup function results in an efficient scheduling algorithm ADAPT. We further observe that the algorithmic efficiency of ADAPT can be improved by better utilizing the switch bandwidth. This leads to a more efficient algorithm SRF (scheduling residue first). ADAPT and SRF can automatically adjust the number of configurations in a schedule according to different switch parameters. We show that both algorithms outperform the existing DOUBLE algorithm.     

Guaranteed scheduling for switches with configuration overhead

We present three algorithms that provide performance guarantees for scheduling switches, such as optical switches, with configuration overhead. Each algorithm emulates an unconstrained (zero overhead) switch by accumulating a batch of configuration requests and generating a corresponding schedule for a constrained switch. Speedup is required both to cover the configuration overhead of the switch and to compensate for empty slots left by the scheduling algorithm. Scheduling algorithms are characterized by the number of configurations N/sub s/ they require to cover a batch of requests and the speedup required to compensate for empty slots S/sub min/. Initially, all switch reconfiguration is assumed to occur simultaneously. We show that a well-known exact matching algorithm, EXACT, leaves no empty slots (i.e., S/sub min/=1), but requires N/sub s//spl ap/N/sup 2/ configurations for an N-port switch leading to high configuration overhead or large batches and, hence, high delay. We present two new algorithms that reduce the number of configurations required substantially. MIN covers a batch of requests in the minimum possible number of configurations, N/sub s/=N, but at the expense of many empty slots, S/sub min//spl ap/4log/sub 2/N. DOUBLE strikes a balance, requiring twice as many configurations, N/sub s/=2N, while reducing the number of empty slots so that S/sub min/=2. Loosening the restriction on reconfiguration times, the scheduling problem is cast as an open shop. The best known practical scheduling algorithm for open shops, list scheduling (LIST), gives the same emulation requirements as DOUBLE. Therefore, we conclude that our architecture gains no advantages from allowing arbitrary switch reconfiguration. Finally, we show that DOUBLE and LIST offer the lowest required speedup to emulate an unconstrained switch across a wide range of port count and delay.     

An analytical model for input-buffered optical packet switches with reconfiguration overhead

The overhead associated with reconfiguring a switch fabric in optical packet switches is an important issue in relation to the packet transmission time and can adversely affect switch performance. The reconfiguration overhead increases the mean waiting time of packets and reduces throughput. The scheduling of packets must take into account the reconfiguration frequency. This work proposes an analytical model for input-buffered optical packet switches with the reconfiguration overhead and analytically finds the optimal reconfiguration frequency that minimizes the mean waiting time of packets. The analytical model is suitable for several round-robin (RR) scheduling schemes in which only non-empty virtual output queues (VOQs) are served or all VOQs are served and is used to examine the effects of the RR scheduling schemes and various network parameters on the mean waiting time of packets. Quantitative examples demonstrate that properly balancing the reconfiguration frequency can effectively reduce the mean waiting time of packets.     

Scheduling algorithms for optical packet fabrics

Utilizing optical technologies to build packet fabrics for high-capacity switches and routers has several advantages in terms of scalability, power consumption, and cost. However, several technology related problems have to be overcome to be able to use such an approach. The reconfiguration times of optical crossbars are longer than those of electronic fabrics and end-to-end clock recovery in such systems add to the reconfiguration overheads. Both these problems can limit the efficiency of optical packet fabrics. In addition, existing work on input-buffered switches mostly assumes fixed size packets (referred as envelopes in this paper). When fixed size switching is used for Internet protocol networks where packets are of variable size, the incoming packets need to be fragmented to fit the fixed size envelopes. This fragmentation can lead to, possibly large loss of bandwidth and even instability. This paper addresses all of the above issues by presenting packetization and scheduling techniques that allow optical packet fabrics to be used within switches and routers. The proposed scheme aggregates multiple packets in a single envelope and when used in combination with proper scheduling algorithms, it can provide system stability as well as bandwidth and delay guarantees. As a result of the aggregation method, the reconfiguration frequency required from the optics is reduced, facilitating the use of optical technologies in implementing packet switch fabrics.     

Nonpreemptive Scheduling of Optical Switches

Many high-speed routers today use input-queuing (IQ) architectures with a crossbar switching fabric based on optical technology. Packets in the input queues are divided into cells of unit length, and the goal is to find a schedule of minimum makespan that forwards all packets to the output ports. The problem is complicated since, in optical switches, so-called configuration delay, that is the time required to reconfigure the switching fabric, is non-negligible with respect to the cell transmission time. We aim to design a scheduler whose complexity does not depend on the number of packets in the input queues. Thus, we focus on the nonpreemptive bipartite scheduling (NPBS) problem, where each input queue is connected to each output port in at most one configuration. We demonstrate that the NPBS problem is NP-hard for any value of the configuration delay, and approximation within a ratio smaller than 7/6 is NP-hard as well. For the offline version of the NPBS problem, we show that a simple greedy algorithm achieves an approximation factor of 2 for arbitrary configuration delay. Then, we consider the online version of the NPBS problem, where the switch gathers the incoming traffic periodically and then schedules the accumulated batches. We propose a scheduling algorithm that guarantees strict delay for any admissible traffic, provided that the switch has a moderate speed-up of two. Finally, we extend our results to the nonbipartite scheduling problem.     

Scheduling algorithms for shared fiber-delay-line optical packet Switches-part II: the three-stage clos-network case

In all-optical packet switching, packets may arrive at an optical switch in an uncoordinated fashion. To prevent packet loss in the switch, fiber delay lines (FDLs) are used as optical buffers to store optical packets. However, assigning FDLs to the arrival packets to achieve high throughput, low delay, and low loss rate is not a trivial task. In the authors' companion paper, several efficient scheduling algorithms were proposed for single-stage shared-FDL optical packet switches (OPSs). To further enhance the switch's scalability, this work was extended to a multistage case. In this paper, two scheduling algorithms are proposed: 1) sequential FDL assignment and 2) multicell FDL assignment algorithms for a three-stage optical Clos-Network switch (OCNS). The paper shows by simulation that a three-stage OCNS with these FDL assignment algorithms can achieve satisfactory performance.     

PetaStar: a petabit photonic packet switch

This paper presents a new petabit photonic packet switch architecture, called PetaStar. Using a new multidimensional photonic multiplexing scheme that includes space, time, wavelength, and subcarrier domains, PetaStar is based on a three-stage Clos-network photonic switch fabric to provide scalable large-dimension switch interconnections with nanosecond reconfiguration speed. Packet buffering is implemented electronically at the input and output port controllers, allowing the central photonic switch fabric to transport high-speed optical signals without electrical-to-optical conversion. Optical time-division multiplexing technology further scales port speed beyond electronic speed up to 160 Gb/s to minimize the fiber connections. To solve output port contention and internal blocking in the three-stage Clos-network switch, we present a new matching scheme, called c-MAC, a concurrent matching algorithm for Clos-network switches. It is highly distributed such that the input-output matching and routing-path finding are concurrently performed by scheduling modules. One feasible architecture for the c-MAC scheme, where a crosspoint switch is used to provide the interconnections between the arbitration modules, is also proposed. With the c-MAC scheme, and an internal speedup of 1.5, PetaStar with a switch size of 6400 /spl times/ 6400 and total capacity of 1.024 petabit/s can be achieved at a throughput close to 100% under various traffic conditions.     

一种公平输入排队调度算法

输入排队交换结构以其良好的可扩展性被越来越多的高速交换机和路由器所采用。当前的调度算法大都以牺牲公平性来换取最大的吞吐量。但随着对QoS支持的要求增强,适用于输入排队交换结构的高效、公平的调度算法成为迫切需要解决的问题。该文提出了一种具有公平性保证的基于虚服务量的公平调度算法。理论分析和计算机仿真都表明算法在信元时延和公平性方面都能提供较好的保证。算法还具有与iSLIP相同的较低通信开销,以及和iLQF相同的算法复杂度。因此,算法具有较好的实用性。     

Scheduling algorithms for shared fiber-delay-line optical packet Switches-part I: the single-stage case

In all-optical packet switching, packets may arrive at an optical switch in an uncoordinated fashion. When contention occurs, fiber delay lines (FDLs) are needed to delay (buffer) the packets that have lost the contention to some future time slots for the desired output ports. There have been several optical-buffered switch architectures and FDL assignment algorithms proposed in the literature. However, most of them either have high implementation complexity or fail to schedule in advance departure time for the delayed packets. This paper studies the packet scheduling algorithms for the single-stage shared-FDL optical packet switch. Three new FDL assignment algorithms are proposed, namely sequential FDL assignment (SEFA), multicell FDL assignment (MUFA), and parallel iterative FDL assignment (PIFA) algorithms for the switch. The proposed algorithms can make FDLs and output-port reservation so as to schedule departure time for packets. Owing to FDL and/or output-port conflicts, the packets that fail to be scheduled are discarded before entering the switch so that they do not occupy any FDL resources. It is shown by simulation that with these algorithms, the optical-buffered switch can achieve a loss rate of /spl sim/10/sup -7/ even at the load of 0.9. These algorithms are extended to the three-stage Clos-Network optical packet switches in the companion paper.     

切换时延不为零的光交换调度算法

文章针对切换时延不为零的光交换调度提出了一种新算法--2近似启发算法.算法由两部分组成:选择匹配和决策权重.其中,选择匹配是确定光交叉阵列的切换次数,由贪心算法完成;决策权重是决定各个配置的持续时长,它是通过选择一个值以使剩下的业务矩阵的开销估计最优.2近似启发算法的近似因子为2,时间复杂度为O(N2logN).仿真表明这种调度算法更接近最优调度,比DOUBLE[1]和ADJUST[2]算法更能自适应传送来的不同业务模式.     

Optical TDM sorting networks for high-speed switching

The general time-space-time switching problem in telecommunications requires the use of multichannel time slot interchangers. We propose two multichannel time slot sorters which sort N² time-division multiplexed (TDM) optical inputs, arranged as N frames with N time slots per frame using O(Nlog²N) optical switch elements. The TDM optical inputs are sorted in place without expanding the space-time fabric into a space-division switch. The hardware components used are 2×2 optical switches (LiNbO₃ directional couplers) and optical delay lines connected in a feedforward fashion. Two space-time variants of the spatial odd-even merge algorithm are used to design the sorters. By maintaining the number of shift-exchange operations invariant at each stage, the proposed sorters use fewer switches than previously proposed sorters using switches with feedback line delays. The use of local control at each 2×2 switch makes the proposed sorters more practical for high-speed optical inputs than Benes-based time slot permuters with global control and high latency, which affects interframe distance. Both time slot sorters support pipelining of input frames and sorted outputs are available at each time slot after an initial frame delay. The proposed sorters find practical application in the time-domain equivalents of space-division, nonblocking, self-routing packet switches using the sort-banyan architecture, such as the Starlite switch, Sunshine switch, etc     

Hardware implementation of fair queuing algorithms for asynchronoustransfer mode networks

Providing quality-of-service guarantees in both cell- and packet-based networks requires the use of a scheduling algorithm in the switches and network interfaces. These algorithms need to be implemented in hardware in a high-speed switch. The authors present a number of approaches to implement scheduling algorithms in hardware. They begin by presenting a general methodology for the design of timestamp-based fair queuing algorithms that provide the same bounds on end-to-end delay and fairness as those of weighted fair queuing, yet have efficient hardware implementations. Based on this general methodology, the authors describe two specific algorithms, frame-based fair queuing and starting potential-based fair queuing, and discuss illustrative implementations in hardware. These algorithms may be used in both cell switches and packet switches with variable-size packets. A methodology for combining a traffic shaper with this class of fair queuing schedulers is also presented for use in network interface devices, such as an ATM segmentation and reassembly device     

Randomized scheduling algorithms for high-aggregate bandwidth switches

The aggregate bandwidth of a switch is its port count multiplied by its operating line rate. We consider switches with high-aggregate bandwidths; for example, a 30-port switch operating at 40 Gb/s or a 1000-port switch operating at 1 Gb/s. Designing high-performance schedulers for such switches with input queues is a challenging problem for the following reasons: (1) high performance requires finding good matchings; (2) good matchings take time to find; and (3) in high-aggregate bandwidth switches there is either too little time (due to high line rates) or there is too much work to do (due to a high port count). We exploit the following features of the switching problem to devise simple-to-implement, high-performance schedulers for high-aggregate bandwidth switches: (1) the state of the switch (carried in the lengths of its queues) changes slowly with time, implying that heavy matchings will likely stay heavy over a period of time and (2) observing arriving packets will convey useful information about the state of the switch. The above features are exploited using hardware parallelism and randomization to yield three scheduling algorithms - APSARA, LAURA, and SERENA. These algorithms are shown to achieve 100% throughput and simulations show that their delay performance is quite close to that of the maximum weight matching, even when the traffic is correlated. We also consider the stability property of these algorithms under generic admissible traffic using the fluid-model technique. The main contribution of this paper is a suite of simple to implement, high-performance scheduling algorithms for input-queued switches. We exploit a novel operation, called MERGE, which combines the edges of two matchings to produce a heavier match, and study of the properties of this operation via simulations and theory. The stability proof of the randomized algorithms we present involves a derandomization procedure and uses methods which may have wider applicability.     

Rate and Delay Guarantees Provided by Clos Packet Switches With Load Balancing

The size of a single-hop cross-bar fabric is still limited by the technology, and the fabrics available on the market do not exceed the terabit capacity. A multihop fabric such as Clos network provides the higher capacity by using the smaller switching elements (SE). When the traffic load is balanced over the switches in a middle stage, all the traffic would get through the fabric, as long as the switch outputs are not overloaded. However, the delay that packets experience through the Clos switch depends on the granularity of flows that are balanced. We examine the maximum fabric utilization under which a tolerable delay is provided for various load balancing algorithms, and derive the general formula for this utilization in terms of the number of flows that are balanced. We show that the algorithms which balance flows with sufficiently coarse granularity provide both high fabric utilization and delay guarantees to the most sensitive applications. Since no admission control should be performed within the switch, the fast traffic-pattern changes can be accommodated in the proposed scalable architecture.     

Solid state optical space switches for network cross-connect andprotection applications

Network protection and reconfiguration is becoming increasingly important in fiber optic communications systems. This is driven by the intense traffic and high cost of lost high-data-rate optical connections. Optical cross-connects at the nodes in transmission systems are developing rapidly in response. A key optical component required for these applications is an optical space switch. Since the required timescale of network reconfiguration at the optical level is on the order of 50 ms to prevent electrical intervention. The optical space switching speed must be approximately 5 ms or faster. The demand created by these applications has motivated the development of a solid state optical space switch based on a novel planar-waveguide technology. This planar integrated optics technology relies on the thermo-optic effect in specialized optical polymer materials and results in reliable optical space switches without moving parts to wear out. This article reviews the state of the art in solid state optical space switches based on thermo-optic polymers and applications of these switches in network communication systems. The same polymer-based planar waveguide technology used to make the solid state optical space switches of today provides the basis for WDM devices. Electro-optic modulators, and devices integrating several functions (space switching, wavelength multiplexing, light generation and detection) in one component in the years to come     

A Service-Curve Framework for Packet Scheduling With Switch Configuration Delays

In modern packet switches, technology limitations may introduce switch configuration delays that are non-negligible compared with the time required to transmit a single packet. In this paper, we propose a methodology for scheduling of packets, in the context of these technology limitations. If the total tolerable delay through a packet switch is at least on the order of the switch configuration delay, we show that a near 100% utilization of the communication links is possible, while providing strict quality of service guarantees. The main idea is to increase the quantum with which data is scheduled and switched to beyond that of a single packet. This also decreases the rate at which scheduling need to be made, and hence decreases the implementation complexity. The quality of service guarantees we consider are in terms of a service curve. Specifically, we present a framework for the provision of service curves while coping with non-negligible switch configuration delays.     

Stability of a frame-based oldest-cell-first maximal weight matching algorithm

Input-queued cell switches employing the oldest-cell-first (OCF) policy have been shown to yield low mean delay characteristics. Moreover, it has been proven that OCF is stable for admissible traffic conditions when executed with a scheduling speedup of 2. However, as link speeds increase, the computational complexity of these algorithms limits their applicability in high port-density switches and routers. To address the scalability issue, we describe a Frame-Based Maximal Weight Matching (FMWM) algorithm, employing OCF as queue weights, in which a new scheduling decision is issued once every several cell times. Between scheduling decisions, the configuration of the crossbar switch remains unchanged. We further extend the analysis to address the case of multiple classes of service, and prove that the algorithm is stable with an internal buffer transfer speedup of 2, thereby significantly relaxing the timing constraints imposed on the scheduling process.     

Matching output queueing with a combined input/output-queued switch

The Internet is facing two problems simultaneously: there is a need for a faster switching/routing infrastructure and a need to introduce guaranteed qualities-of-service (QoS). Each problem can be solved independently: switches and routers can be made faster by using input-queued crossbars instead of shared memory systems; QoS can be provided using weighted-fair queueing (WFQ)-based packet scheduling. Until now, however, the two solutions have been mutually exclusive-all of the work on WFQ-based scheduling algorithms has required that switches/routers use output-queueing or centralized shared memory. This paper demonstrates that a combined input/output-queueing (CIOQ) switch running twice as fast as an input-queued switch can provide precise emulation of a broad class of packet-scheduling algorithms, including WFQ and strict priorities. More precisely, we show that for an N×N switch, a “speedup” of 2-1/N is necessary, and a speedup of two is sufficient for this exact emulation. Perhaps most interestingly, this result holds for all traffic arrival patterns. On its own, the result is primarily a theoretical observation; it shows that it is possible to emulate purely OQ switches with CIOQ switches running at approximately twice the line rate. To make the result more practical, we introduce several scheduling algorithms that with a speedup of two can emulate an OQ switch. We focus our attention on the simplest of these algorithms, critical cells first (CCF), and consider its running time and implementation complexity. We conclude that additional techniques are required to make the scheduling algorithms implementable at a high speed and propose two specific strategies     

Impact of scheduling algorithms on performance of crosspoint-queued switch

The performance analysis of the 32?×?32 crosspoint-queued switch is presented in this paper. Switches with small buffers in crosspoints have been evaluated in the late 1980s but mostly for uniform traffic. However, due to technological limitations of that time, it was impractical to implement large buffers together with switching fabric. The crosspoint-queued switch architecture has been recently brought back into focus since modern technology enables an easy implementation of large buffers in crosspoints. An advantage of this solution is the absence of control communication between linecards and schedulers. In this paper, the performances of four algorithms (longest queue first, round robin, exhaustive round robin, and frame-based round robin matching) are analyzed and compared. The results obtained for the crosspoint-queued switch are compared with the output queued switch. Throughput, average cell latency and instantaneous packet delay variance are evaluated under uniform and nonuniform traffic patterns. The results will show that the longest queue first algorithm has the highest throughput in many simulated cases but the highest average cell latency and delay variance among observed algorithms. It will also be shown that the choice of the scheduling algorithm does not play a role in the switch performance if the buffers are long enough. This will prove that some form of round-robin-based algorithms become a better choice for implementation due to their simplicity, small hardware requirements, and avoidance of the starvation problem, which is a major drawback of the longest queue first algorithm.     

Optical Burst Switching With Large Switching Overhead

To date, optical burst switching (OBS) schemes assume the switch reconfiguration time to be negligible, a part of the processing delay of the control packet, or a fixed value added to the data burst length, regardless of the switch status. In this paper, we show that the switching overhead can have a significant impact on the performance of some OBS channel scheduling schemes. We have also proposed methods to alleviate the problem