A three-stage construction for multiconnection networks

Summary A multiconnection network of size N is a switching network with N inputs and N outputs which realizes multiconnections, i.e., connections between the N inputs and N outputs in such a way that every output is connected to exactly one input, but an input can be connected to an arbitrary number of outputs. That network is complete if it can realize all N ^N multiconnections. This structure generalizes the permutation network. We consider here the design of multiconnection networks by a three-stage Clos network using complete substitution networks as its building cells and we show that the resulting multiconnection network is complete if and only if the cells in the middle stage have size 2. Moreover, we describe the control algorithm for such a network. This leads to the design of cellular multiconnection networks of arbitrary size with a relatively simple control algorithm.