05 - Unit 1

Unit X Switching
1 Fundamentals
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of Unit 1, you should be able to
1. Discuss the basic idea and function of switches.
2. Explain the properties of circuit switching, packet switching and
virtual circuit switching, and the differences between them.
3. Discuss the advantages of using virtual circuit switching over the
other types of switching.
4. Describe the fundamental operations of the simplest space division
switch: the crossbar switch.
5. Illustrate the advantages of constructing large switches using multi-
stage switching networks.
6. Identify different basic elements of switches.
7. Discuss the basic concepts in time division switches: time division
multiplexing, time slot interchanger and time multiplexed switches.
8. Explain the concept of equivalence of different switching networks:
Time-Space-Time (TST) and Space-Time-Space (STS).
9. Demonstrate the differences between rearrange ably non-blocking
(RNB) and strictly non-blocking (SNB).
10. Construct RNB and SNB networks using switching cells.
11. Describe the basic ideas of bus switches, buffer switches and memory
switches.
12. Appreciate the elementary structure of a concentrator and multicast
switches.
2 X UNIT 1 SWITCHING )81'$0(17$/6
OVERVIEW
Unit 1 contains seven sections dealing with the basic ideas of switching
technology and the various ways in which switches are constructed.
1. The first section gives you a basic understanding of switches and the history
of their development.
2. The second section contains a revision of different switching techniques.
3. The third section introduces the concepts and implementation methods
(construction) of space division switches. The idea of constructing a large
switch using a multistage switching network will be described as well.
4. In the fourth section, another major implementation · time division
switches · is discussed. You will learn the concept of equivalence of
different switching networks.
5. In the fifth section, youÊll learn the blocking and non-blocking properties of
switches. The ideas of strictly non-blocking (SNB) and rearrange ably non-
blocking (RNB) will be introduced.
6. In the sixth section, other types of switches · bus switches, buffer switches
and memory switches · will be investigated.
7. In the final section, two specific switching networks · concentrator and
multicast switches · will be briefly described.
The self-tests in this unit are designed to help you understand the fundamental
concepts of switching and switches as you work your way through the unit. The
summary and glossary at the end of this unit are there to help you when you do
your revision.
X INTRODUCTION
In the previous units, you learned the basic concepts of internetworking and
various protocols of data networks, and now you are ready for a different topic
· switching. Switching is the process of transfering data from an input interface
to a selected output interface of a device.
Switches are widely used in both circuit-switched and packet-switched networks.

In circuit-switched networks like telephone networks, switches have been used
for more than a century. Packet-switched networks are connected together by
routers, or computers with routing abilities. A switch in packet-switched
networks performs the same functions as a router: it routes packets from an input
to its destined output. The difference between a switch and a router is that a
switch does not have a routing table. It delivers packets by a distributed
UNIT 1 SWITCHING )81'$0(17$/6 W 3
mechanism, i.e., there is no centralized control about which packet goes to where.
The packetÊs route is determined at each stage of its journey without prior
knowledge of the complete path. You will see examples in later sections of this
unit of how a switch determines the route of a packet stage by stage.
The distributed mechanism greatly reduces the processing time in the

determination of routes, so we can build high-speed networks by using switches.
Despite their high speed, however, problems may arise when switches are used.
One of these problems is blocking, when input cannot be connected to the desired
output in a switch. The method of reducing the chance of getting blocked
becomes a great issue when designing a switch. This leads to the study of non-
blocking switches. Non-blocking switches can be classified mainly into two
groups, strictly non-blocking (SNB) switches and rearrange ably non-blocking
(RNB) switches.
In the first section, youÊll see how a switch reduces the number of links required
in a network. The importance of switches becomes readily apparent, especially
when the number of users is large. YouÊll begin your study of switching systems
by gaining an understanding of the role played by switches in telephone
networks.
WHAT ARE SWITCHES?

Of all the various telecommunication systems in use today, the system we use
most frequently is the telephone. Although there have been striking advances in
the way telephone messages are transmitted over long distances, the basic
operation of telephone systems has changed very little since Alexander Graham
Bell spoke over the first phone.
Did you ever construct a telephone system of your own when you were a child?
Perhaps you did using two plastic cups or two cans connected by a string (Figure
1.1). This is similar to a real telephone connection: two phones located a distance
apart were linked up over a copper wire that completed the connection · just
like the string did between the plastic cups. Signals were transmitted from one
phone to the other via the copper wire (string) so that people could talk to and
hear from each other.
Figure 1.1: Simplest telephone system
Telephones must work in pairs for communication to occur; they must be linked
through a communication circuit to carry the signal between connected telephone
sets. In other words, we need to establish a connection between any pair of
phones before communication can take place. The simplest idea is to build a fully
connected network as shown in Figure 1.2. This is also known as the mesh
topology in the literature. As the name implies, each telephone in a fully
connected network has a direct link to the remaining telephones; that is, there is
always a direct link between every pair of telephones.
telephone
link
Figure 1.2: Fully connected network
Despite its simplicity, the cost of building a fully connected network is very high.
LetÊs consider the following simple example. Supposing you have ten friends to
call, then your phone must have ten links (ten pairs of copper wires) to connect to
each of your friendsÊ telephones through a direct connection. Similarly, each of
your friends also needs a single pair to connect to each of the other parties. Using
simple mathematics, your friends and you will need a total of 10 × 9/2 = 45 lines
to communicate with each other. For a system with few users, this effect is not
very large. If you have 20 friends, the number of required links will jump to 190.
How many links will be required if you have 100 friends?
In general, if there are n telephones and each of the n telephones is connected to

(n ă 1) other telephones, and each link is shared by two telephones, the number of
links required will equal . For a city like Hong Kong, where a few million users
subscribe to telephone services, the number of links required will be 1014 or
more! So you can see that fully connected networks are not feasible in real life.
Pages 102ă106 (3rd edn)/118ă121 (4th edn) in Computer Networks. This

section gives you a general idea about PSTN (Public Switched Telephone
Network). Please pay particular attention to the importance of and the need
for switching. You also need to understand how the telephone system works
and the three major components of a telephone system.
From the above assigned reading, you should have found that a ÂcircuitÊ links
two telephones. If there were only two users, then a simple link would serve the
purpose. However, if the number of subscribers increased very rapidly, and if we
had to build a circuit between every single telephone, the cost would be
extremely high! In order to increase the efficiency (reduce the cost and the
amount of materials used) a new technique was needed and the answer was
found through switching technology.
So, instead of there being a direct connection between any pair of telephones,
each telephone was connected to a central office (known as a switching office or
telephone exchange) of the phone company. You might have watched the
following type of scene in the old movies:
1. A user (caller) picks up the telephone and tells the operator in the switching
offices who he/she wants to call (the ÂcalleeÊ).
2. The operator rings the ÂcalleeÊsÊ telephone.
3. If the ÂcalleeÊ picks up the phone, the operator manually connects the caller
and the ÂcalleeÊ using a jumper cable.
phones
centralized switch
Figure 1.3: Centralized switch (star topology)
Thus, the operator in the phone companyÊs central office acted like a switch by
manually connecting an input to an output. This kind of model, known as
centralized switching, is shown in Figure 1.3. That is, every user was connected to
a central switch (operators in the switching offices), and the switch (operator)
determined how to set up the connection between any two parties. Another
everyday example is: you make a call to the front desk of a company, ask for a
particular extension number, the receptionist forwards your call to desired
extension number, and your call is answered. Again, the receptionist has acted as
a switch. The interconnection of multiple switches forms a switching network.
You can easily prove that the links required for n users are only n when
centralized switching is used. Compared to a fully connected network, you can
make big savings in the number of links required by using a centralized
switching system: 1/2 n(n-1) lines in a fully connected system are reduced to n
lines in a centralized system. In Table 1.1 we compare the number of links
required for a fully connected system with a centralized system.
Table 1.1: Comparison of Number of Links Required

Fully Connected: Centralised System:
n
1/2 n (n-1) n
2 1 2
3 3 3
5 10 5
10 45 10
100 4950 100
1000 499500 1000
Consequently, the problem of installing multiple and often redundant lines was
solved by using switches. As the number of telephones grew, it became very
complicated and inefficient for operators to make connections by plugging in
jacks in a switching office. Mechanical devices replaced operators and, with
advances in technology, the old electromechanical switches have been mostly
replaced by digital electronic switches in modern Public Switched Telephone
Networks (PSTNs).
Telephone switching networks are not just reserved for PSTNs. Some companies,
especially in the United States, have set up their own switching networks that not
only connect calls within a single building or complex but also between separate
parts of the company located in different cities or even on different continents. In
such systems, the local or inter-exchange telephone companies are bypassed and
the company acts as its own telephone company.
As discussed in the previous paragraphs, switching can be done using a

centralized switch in Figure 1.3, to which all phones are connected. This is called
star topology. Any phone that wants to connect to another phone must first
connect to the switch and let the switch make the connection. This model reduces
the number of links required: n links for n users. There are limits, however, to the
efficiency of centralized switches: the greater the number of connected users, the
lower the performance of the switching function. This is similar to the situation in
which a computer will work slower as you run more programs at the same time,
as the processor must be shared by more processes and so the performance

(speed) is reduced.
As the demand for phone services grew, connecting thousands of users through a
single switching office quickly became unmanageable (even impractical). Instead
of a single switching office that served all the telephone lines, more and more
switching offices were built so that each switching office served a number of
telephone lines, but not all of them. Switching offices were linked up such that
telephones served by different switching offices could be connected. Therefore,
second-level (or multi-level) switching offices were introduced to connect the first
level switching offices together as shown in Figure 1.4.
phones
first level (level -1) switching office
second level (level -2) switching office
Figure 1.4: Two-level hierarchy
The idea behind multi-level switching offices is as follows. A small number of

telephones are connected to a level-1 switching office (e.g., a group of telephones
within Exchange Square). This level-l switching office is connected to a level-2
switching office (e.g., several commercial buildings are connected to the Central
DistrictÊs switching office). Then several level-2 switching offices are connected to
a level-3 switching office (e.g., several district switching offices are connected to
the regional Hong Kong Island switching office). In modern telephone networks,
we have up to five levels in the hierarchy of switching offices.
The main problem of centralized switches, however, is reliability, because the

centralized switch coordinates all the connection set-up processes. If the
centralized switch breaks down, none of the users connected to that switch will
be able to communicate. For instance, the breakdown of a major switching office
in the US caused a disruption to the service of millions of telephones in the early
1990s. In the coming sections, we will discuss various types of switching
technologies and the problem raised from using switching to reduce cost:
blocking. Before moving on to the next seciton, please try Self-test 1.1.
SELF-TEST 1.1
1. State an advantage of star topology networks over fully connected
networks. What is the limitation of using star topology?
2. Calculate the number of links required when using (a) star
topology; and (b) a fully connected network with the following
number of users:
(i) 50
(ii) 5,000
(iii) 5,000,000.
DIFFERENT SWITCHING TECHNIQUES

In the previous section, you learned about the introduction of switches into
telephone networks. In this section, you will learn three different techniques used
in switching systems; namely, circuit switching, packet switching and virtual
circuit switching. YouÊll learn their advantages and disadvantages and make
comparisons among them.
Pages 130ă134 (3rd edn)/146ă151 (4th edn) in Computer Networks. In this

section, youÊll read some details of both circuit switching and packet
switching. In this reading, youÊll see that the most important characteristic of
circuit switching is the need to set up an end-to-end path in the connection.
YouÊll also see the nature of packet switching, as well as the major
differences between circuit switching and packet switching. You should pay
particular attention to these differences.
Circuit Switching
LetÊs investigate the properties of the first type of switching technique · circuit
switching.
Since it is impossible to have a direct connection between every pair of

telephones, switches are needed to achieve the connection. LetÊs see how such a
connection is achieved.
At the calling side, the user (caller) has to key in the number that he or she wants
to call. A signal is then transmitted from the calling side to a switch at the end
office. Since the signal contains the number that is to be called, the switch will try
to establish a path between the two parties. If the call is successfully made, a
connection is set up between the two parties, and hence the signal containing the
conversation can be exchanged through the established connection. One of the
major properties of circuit switching is that the connection established can only
be used by a single phone call, and the resource is dedicated to that phone call
only. That means the particular phone call has sole access to the circuit, and other
phone calls canÊt access that dedicated path until the particular phone call is
terminated.
How is this path established in circuit switching? Consider the network used in
the example in Figure 1.5. Suppose, in the figure, telephones are located at nodes
A and D, while nodes B and C are switches. You are located at node A and want
to call a friend who is located at node D. You need to dial the number and the call
request signals will be sent out. But before the call request signals are sent out, a
process is needed to encode the dialled number within the request signals, so that
nodes B and C · the switches in between · know where you want to connect to
and they can then set up the appropriate path.
AB BC CD
Links
Nodes A B C D
Figure 1.5: Network used in circuit switching
Time is needed at every node to search for an outgoing link to set up the circuit
for communication. So, there are delays at every node during circuit switching
connection. Remember that the call is still in the call set-up phase, and the two
parties cannot communicate with each other, as the circuit is not yet established.
After passing through nodes B and C, the call request signal finally reaches the
party being called. If the phone of the party being called is idle, it is then available
for this connection to be completed and a signal of acknowledgement will be sent
from the called partyÊs phone to your phone. The signal will be sent through the
circuit that has been set up through the call set-up phase and, since the path is
already established, the acknowledgement is received much faster than it took to
set up the original connection. Once the signal of acknowledgement is received,
you can hear the ringing of your friendÊs phone and then you simply wait for him
or her to pick up the phone.
From now on, the two parties can talk on the phone. Information is transmitted
through the circuit from one side to the other. After the conversation is finished,
the party who disconnects the call will send out a disconnect signal to the other
side. Once the other side receives this disconnect signal, the whole calling process
comes to an end and that circuit is then available to handle another call.
The whole calling process is pictured in Figure 1.6.
Dialling and
associated delays
User request Call request

for circuit signals
Time spent
hunting for an
Time outgoing trunk
Connect
signal
Message
Propagation
delay
.
.
.
Disconnect
signal
AB BC CD
trunk trunk trunk
Figure 1.6: Process of circuit switching
Packet Switching
While circuit switching is the traditional kind of switching technique, packet
switching is a totally different technique. As we explained in earlier units, while
circuit switching is designed to handle voice connection, packet switching is
mainly used for handling digital data; for example, data sent across computer
networks. Although we can currently transmit voice over the Internet (know as
ÂVoice over IPÊ service in the literature), the voice information is first digitalized
to form packets before sending it over the Internet.
In circuit switching, the entire signal is transmitted through the dedicated (but
ÂtemporaryÊ) circuit that is set up for communication, but for packet switching,
the entire message is broken down into several packets that need not be equal in
size. Also, while there is a dedicated path in circuit switching, a dedicated path is
not needed in packet switching as the packets of the same message may go to the
destination through different routes. You may understand this better by using an
analogy from everyday life.
Assume that you are required to take a box of puzzles from your home to your
workplace. The best way you might think of is to go by taxi and take the whole
set of puzzles with you. However, you could also break the whole set of puzzles
into smaller sets and distribute them to a number of co-workers. Some may go by
MTR; others may go by bus or any other way to reach the workplace. After
receiving all the smaller sets of puzzles, you can put the puzzles together. This
simple analogy should highlight the difference between circuit switching and
packet switching. Since there is no dedicated path for the packets, however, a
header (an address) is needed ÂonÊ every packet so that the switch knows where
to route the packets (their destination). All those puzzles should arrive at the
same workplace, not just any workplace.
The whole packet switching process is depicted in Figure 1.7.
Queueing
delay
Pkt 1
Pkt 2
Pkt 1
Pkt 3
Pkt 2
Time Pkt 1
Propagation
Pkt 3 delay
Pkt 2
Pkt 3
A B C D
Figure 1.7: Process of packet switching
We have covered both circuit switching and packet switching. Let's now compare
the systems.
There is no need for packet switching to have a call set-up procedure, while
circuit switching needs it in order to have a dedicated path.
Circuit switching requires a fixed bandwidth as it has a fixed path, and this value
is not related to the traffic. If the transmitted information rate is smaller than the
allocated bandwidth in the circuit, bandwidth will be wasted. There is no
bandwidth reservation in packet switching, and users just send as many packets
as they want to. However, if the network does not have sufficient bandwidth to
transmit the packets, excessively large packets will be lost.
In circuit switching, once the path is established, information can be transmitted.

For packet switching, however, each packet requires a header (an address), which
complicates the process as an extra step is needed to create and append the
header to the packet.
As packets are used to transfer the data from one place to another, the packets
may follow different routes, and at different times, according to the traffic. Since
different packets may encounter different delays, this may result in packages
being received in a totally different order at the receiving end. Hence a special
control is required at the receiving end to reorder the sequence of packets. In the
example of puzzles, if any smaller set is lost, you will fail to put the puzzles
together. Circuit switching doesnÊt have all these problems, as data are directly
sent into the circuit and there are no delays in creating the packets. Also, the data
that arrive at the receiving end must be in sequence.
Table 1.2: Summarizes the differences between circuit switching and packet
switching.
Table 1.2: A Comparison of Circuit Switching and Packet Switching
Item Circuit-switched Packet-switched

Dedicated 'copper' path Yes No
Bandwidth available Fixed Dynamic
Potentially wasted yes No
bandwidth
Store-and-forward No yes
transmission
Each packet follows the yes No
same route
Call set-up Required Not needed
When can congestion occur At set-up time On every packet
Charging Per connection time Per packet
[© Tanenbaum, A S Computer Networks 3rd edn, Prentice Hall].
Connection-oriented services are those services in which users first establish a

connection, use the connection, and then release the connection. Connectionless
services are similar to a postal system. In this service, the message is broken into
several packets that carry the full destination address, and each one is routed
through the system independent of all the others. These two words are used to
describe the nature of the connection and whether a path is set up in the data
transmission. Circuit switching can be used to support connection-oriented
service, while packet switching can be used to support connectionless service.
However, connection-oriented doesnÊt stand for circuit switching while
connectionless doesnÊt stand for packet switching.
Virtual Circuit Switching

Virtual circuit switching can be viewed as a mixture of both circuit switching and
packet switching. As in packet switching, the message is divided into several
packets and, instead of being transmitted to the destination through different
routes as in packet switching, all the packets are transmitted through the same
route and arrive at the destination in sequence. This is called virtual circuit
switching because, from the usersÊ point of view, they are transmitting the data in
a ÂdedicatedÊ circuit. However, the ÂcircuitÊ is not private and it can be shared by a
number of connections. By using a fixed route, the size of headers can be greatly
reduced, as only the virtual circuit needs to be identified, but not the exact
address of the destination. Also, with the help of a fixed route between the source
and destination, the packets can arrive in the same sequence as they were sent
from the senderÊs side.
However, since the path is actually shared by several connections, the delays
encountered by different packets can vary. There is no other route for the packets
to follow and so the delays may be very large.
SELF-TEST 1.2
1. List the three differences between circuit switching and packet
switching.
2. What are the advantages of using virtual circuit switching over
packet switching and circuit switching?
SPACE-DIVISION SWITCHES
So far, we have discussed the applications of switches and various switching
techniques. In this section, youÊll learn about the physical structure of switches.
We shall start with the most popular switch · space-division switches · which
will be the main focus of this course. Then weÊll describe the basic operation of
the simplest space-division switch: the crossbar switch.
Despite its simplicity, it is expensive to build a single crossbar switch. Thus, we

shall discuss how to build a large switch using multistage switches to reduce the
cost. This concept of building large switches using small switches leads to the
introduction of basic elements of switches: switching cells. We shall briefly
discuss the four types of switching cells in the latter part of this section.
Crossbar Switches
The basic function of a switch is to connect an input line and a destined output
line. For a switch with M input lines and N output lines, we say that it is an M ×
N switch. Sometimes, an M × N switch is simply represented by a square box
with M inputs and N outputs as shown in Figure 1.8. Without loss of generality,
we can assume the number of input lines is equal to the number of output lines
(i.e. M = N) in the following discussion.
Input Output
1 1
2 2
. M × N switch .
. .
. .
M N
Figure 1.8: An M × N switch
The most widely used form of switching is space-division switching, which was
originally developed for the analog environment (telephone networks) and has
gradually evolved into the digital technology environment. The fundamental
concept is the same whether the switch is used to convey analog or digital
signals. As the name implies, a space division switch is one in which the signal
paths that are set up are physically separated from one another (divided in
space). In other words, each input is connected to another output through a
dedicated physical path established by the switch.
You might wonder how the switch actually works inside that square box. We
start with the simplest kind of space division switch · the crossbar switch (also
called a crosspoint switch). Let us consider an N × N crossbar switch shown in
Figure 1.9. This crossbar switch has N × N interconnections, known as
crosspoints, where an input and an output line may be connected by a digital
device (logic AND gate) as shown in Figure 1.10.
2
Crosspoints 'closed'
3
input input 2 output N
.
. input 3 output 1
.
1 2 ... N
output
Figure 1.9: N × N crossbar switch
Each input is connected to an output line through an AND gate which is

controlled by an external signal. When the control signal is Â1Ê, the crosspoint is in
the ÂclosedÊ state and the input line is connected to the output line. When the
control signal is Â0Ê, the crosspoint is in the ÂopenÊ state and the input line cannot
connect to the output line. Thus, you can say that a crosspoint is simply an
On/Off switch · On (closed) or Off (open).
Input
0
1
AND
Output
Figure 1.10: A crosspoint
A crossbar switch consists of an array of connected crosspoints. Each row in the

array corresponds to an input and each column to an output. To connect input(s)
with output(s), we simply ÂcloseÊ the intermediate crosspoint(s) between them.
This is similar to how an operator used the jumper cables to connect a telephone
to another phone in the old days. Hence, in a crossbar switch, we need a central
control (e.g. the operator) to determine which crosspoints to close to make the
connection.
Figure 1.11(a) shows the physical implementation of a 4 × 4 crossbar switch.

Figure 1.11(b) gives a simplified representation of this crossbar switch. A circle
represents a crosspoint. In particular, a dark circle represents a connected
crosspoint and a light circle represents an open crosspoint. In this example, input
A is connected to output Y; input C is connected to outputs X and Z; and inputs B

and D plus output W are all idle. Suppose all inputs and outputs are merely
telephones; that is, A is talking with Y, C is having multi-party conferencing with
X and Z, and B, D and W are idle (not talking to anyone).
0 0 0 0 A
1 1 1 1
AND AND AND AND
B
Input
C
0 0 0 0
1
AND
1
AND
1
AND
1
AND
D
0 0 0 0
1 1 1 1
AND AND AND AND W X Y Z
Output
0 0 0 0
1
AND
1
AND
1
AND
1
AND
OPEN state of a crosspoint
CLOSED state of a crosspoint
Figure 1.11: (a) A crossbar switch; (b) An example of a crossbar switch
Despite its simplicity, the crossbar switch has a number of limitations:

Ć For an N × crossbar switch, the number of crosspoints is given by N2. For N
= 1000, we need 1,000,000 crosspoints. Therefore, it is very costly to make
large crossbar switches.
Ć Reliability is another issue. If the crosspoint between any input-output pair
malfunctions, the input will not be able to connect to that output.
Ć Since each output can be connected to one input, at most N out of N2
crosspoints are used. The crosspoints are inefficiently utilized.
Multi-stage Switches
Due to these limitations, it is hard to build a single large crossbar switch.
However, we do not want to limit our applications only to a small number of
users. How can we overcome the limitations? Well, you have encountered this
problem in telephone networks and the solution is to build a multiple level
hierarchy of switching offices. A similar idea can be employed in building large
crossbar switches · multistage switches. That is, make use of smaller sized
crossbar switches and then interconnect them to form a large switch. To keep our
discussion simple, weÊll consider only three-stage switches even though switches
with more stages are possible. Figure 1.12 shows a three-stage network of
switches that has a total of N inputs and N outputs.
Instead of building a single N × N crossbar switch, we will build a switch using

smaller rectangular crossbars. In the first stage, N input lines are broken up into
N/n groups of n lines and each group of lines is connected to an n × k crossbar,
where k is a constant. The second stage has k crossbars, each with N/n inputs
and N/n outputs. The third stage is a repeat of the first stage, but reversed from
left to right, i.e. the third stage has N/n groups of k × n crossbars. Each
intermediate crossbar is connected to each input crossbar and each output
crossbar. Therefore, it is possible to connect every input into every output
through one of the second stage crossbars. The parameters of k and n depend on
the design of a switch. More details about this will be discussed in Unit 2.
N N
crossbars crossbars
n n
k crossbars
n .. .. n
n×k k×n
inputs . . outputs
N×N
n n
n .. .. n
n×k k×n
inputs . N×N . outputs
n n
. . .
. . .
. . .
N×N
n n n n
.. n×k k×n ..
inputs . . outputs
Figure 1.12: Three stage space division switch
Let us compute the number of crosspoints needed for a three-stage switch.
In the first stage, there are N/n crossbars, each with nk crosspoints. This gives a
total of kN. In the second stage, there are k crossbars, each with (N/n)2
crosspoints. The third stage is the same as the first. Adding up the three stages,
total number of crosspoints = 2 kN + k(N/n)2 (9.1)
Examples
We would like to build a 1000 × 1000 crossbar switch.
(a) How many crosspoints will be required using a single crossbar?
(b) How many crosspoints will be required using a three-stage switch with n =
50, k = 100?
(c) How many crosspoints will be required using a three-stage switch with n =
50, k = 10?
Answers
(a) N = 1000, number of crosspoints = 10002 = 1,000,000
(b) N = 1000, n = 50, k = 100,
number of crosspoints = 2 × 100 × 1000 + 100 × (1000/50)2 = 240,000
(c) N = 1000, n = 50, k = 10,
number of crosspoints = 2 × 10 × 1000 + 10 × (1000/50)2 = 24,000
The above examples clearly demonstrate that a three-stage switch requires far
fewer crosspoints than a single crossbar switch. It also shows that different
choices of k (the number of immediate crossbar switches) can make a significant
difference in the number of crosspoints (240,000 in (b) compared with 24,000 in
(c)). Equation 9.1 shows that if k increases, the number of crosspoints increases,
and if n decreases, the number of crosspoints increases. Thus, to minimize the
number of crosspoints, we can minimize the value of k and maximize the value of
n. You may quickly jump to the conclusion that k should be as small as possible
because it requires fewer crosspoints. However, this is not the complete story. As
the number of k is reduced, the chance of causing blocking increases, which
means that an input has a higher probability of not being able to connect to an
output. This idea is rather intuitive because the number of switches in the second
stage represents the number of possible paths for an input connecting to an
output. The more second stage switches there are, the higher the chance that an
input gets connected to an output. We will discuss the blocking issue in a later
section of this unit.
In summary, an increase in k increases the cost of a switch but decreases the

blocking probability. In 1953, Clos showed that when k = 2n ă 1, three-stage
switches will never block. You will learn the detailed workings of a Clos network
in Unit 2
Switching Cells
In the previous section, you learned that a large switch can be constructed from
multi-stages of smaller switches. If we expand this idea a little bit, we can split
the smaller switches into multi-stages of even smaller switches. This process can
go on and on until we canÊt split the switch any more. Then, an interesting
question to ask is: ÂWhat is the smallest size of switch that can be used as the
basic element to construct other switches?Ê. Before we answer this question, let us
consider a simple example.
1 1
2×2 2×2
2 2
4×4
3 3
2×2 2×2
4 4
5 5
2×2 2×2
6 6
4×4
7 7
2×2 2×2
8 8
8 × 8 switch
Figure 1.13(a): An 8 × 8 switch constructed by two 4 × 4 and eight 2 × 2 switches.

N = 8, n = 2 and k = 2.
1 1
2×2 2×2 2×2
2 2
3 3
2×2 2×2 2×2
4 4
4 × 4 switch
Figure 1.13(b): A 4 × 4 switch constructed by six 2 × 2 switches, n = 2, k = 2.
In Figure 1.13(a), an 8 × 8 switch can be constructed from two 4 × 4 switches and

eight 2 × 2 switches. Each 4 × 4 switch can in turn be built from 2 × 2 switches as
in Figure 1.13(b). Then we find that a 2 × 2 switch cannot be split any more so we
may guess that 2 × 2 switches must be the elementary switch. Well, this is exactly
the case. A 2 × 2 switch is one of the basic switching elements, called Âswitching
cellsÊ, used to construct large switches.
Switching cells are two-state switches, which are considered as the most
elementary switches. Two-state means that a switching cell can operate in one of
two states. By interconnecting these switching cells, we can build multi-stage
switches.
There are four types of switching cell (the two states are shown in parentheses):
Ć 1 × 1 crosspoint (on/off)
Ć 2 × 2 switching cell (bar/cross)
Ć 2 × 1 concentrator (input 1/input 2)
Ć 1 × 2 distributor (output 1/output 2)
The crosspoint is the only 1 × 1 configuration, and it has been discussed earlier in
this section. When the crosspoint is in the closed state, the input is connected to
the output. In turn, when the crosspoint is in the open state, the input is not
connected to the output. An array of crosspoints forms a crossbar switch.
The 2 × 2 switching cell appears in most switching networks. Such a switching

cell has two states. Figure 1.14 shows the bar state and the cross state of a 2 × 2
switching cell, where the left hand side is input and the right hand side is output.
1. In the bar state, the upper input is connected to the upper output and the
lower input is connected to the lower output. As shown in Figure 1.14(a), in
the bar state, A in the upper input is routed to the upper output and B in the
lower input is routed to the lower output.
2. In the cross state, the upper input is connected to the lower output and the
lower input is connected to the upper output. As shown in Figure1.14(b), in
the cross state, C in the upper input is routed to the lower output and D in
the lower input is routed to the upper output.
A A C D
B B D C
Figure 1.14: (a) The bar state and (b) the cross state of the 2 x 2 switching cell
You may ask why a 2 × 2 crossbar isnÊt commonly used to perform the same task
as this 2 × 2 switching cell. As mentioned before, a crossbar requires a central
control to enable (close or open) specified crosspoints in order to build the paths.
In the 2 × 2 crossbar, there are four crosspoints and the central control needs to
determine which crosspoint to close. However, a 2 × 2 switching cell only
operates in one of two states: bar or cross. No central control is required in a 2 ×2
switching cell, and the routing speed of a 2 × 2 switching cell is much faster than
a 2 × 2 crossbar. This is why 2 × 2 switching cells are used as the elementary
switch. In Figure 1.15, an 8 ×8 switching network constructed by 2 × 2 switching
cells is shown.
Note: In multistage switching networks, the lines (the physical connections)

between switching cells are fixed and cannot be altered once the switch has been
built. However, each switching cell can operate either in cross state or bar state.
The alternation of the states of individual switching cells can set up a physical
path to connect an input to an output. For instance input A can be connected to
output 5 and input C can be connected to output 4, as shown in Figure 1.15 by the
dotted lines.
ACTIVITY 1.1
1. Try to obtain the 8 × 8 switch in Figure 1.15 from Figure 1.13(a)

and (b).
2. Try to establish a connection for the following input-output pairs:
Input B and Output 7 and Input F and Output 1 in Figure 1.15.
A 1
B
5
F
Figure 1.15: An 8 × 8 switching network constructed by 2 x 2 switching cells
The 2 × 1 concentrator (Figure 1.16(a)) has two inputs and one output. The
concentrator picks one of the two inputs to connect to the output. In Figure
1.16(b), the output is connected to either input A or B. You can think of
implementing the 2 × 1 concentrator by a 2 × 2 switching cell as shown in Figure
1.14(c). You have two inputs A and B to a 2 × 2 switching cell but only the upper
output is used. Hence, depending on the state of the switching cell, the output is
connected to either the input A or B. The issue of concentrators will be discussed
in detail later.
input A
output
input B
Figure 1.16 (a): 2 × 1 concentrator

A A
A or B
B B
Figure 1.16(b): Output of 2 × 1 concentrator
A A A B
or
B B
Figure 1.16 (c): Implementation of 2 × 1 concentrator using 2 × 2 switching cell
The 1 × 2 distributor (Figure 1.17(a)) has one input and two outputs, which is the
mirror image of the 2 × 1 concentrator. In Figure 1.17(b), the input is connected to
either output 1 or output 2. Similarly, you can think of implementing the 1 × 2
distributor by a 2 × 2 switching cell as shown in Figure 1.17(c). Only the upper
input to the 2 × 2 switching cell is used. Hence, depending on the state of the
switching cell, the input is connected to either output 1 or output 2.
output 1
input
output 2
Figure 1.17(a): 1 × 2 distributor
output 1
input or input
output 2
Figure 1.17(b): Output of 1 × 2 distributor
1
or
2
Figure 1.17(c): Implementation of 1 × 2 distributor using 2 × 2 switching cell
The 2 × 2 switching cell is the most important switching cell throughout this
course. Most of our study will concentrate on how to use 2 × 2 switching cells to
build larger switches with desired properties. We will not go into detail
concerning crosspoints, concentrators and distributors.
You may have noticed that there may not be enough links to use when many data
inputs arrive at a switch at the same instant. This leads to the problem of
blocking, which will be discussed in a later section.
SELF-TEST 1.3
1. What are the advantages of using 2 × 2 switching cells instead of 2

× 2 crossbars?
2. We would like to build an 8 × 8 switch. How many crosspoints will
be required in building a single crossbar switch? How many
crosspoints will be required in building a 3-stage crossbar switch as
shown in Figure 1.13(a)? How many crosspoints will be required
using a multistage switch using 2 × 2 crossbar switches as shown in
Figure 1.15? Explain your findings.
TIME-DIVISION SWITCHES
So far, all the described switching networks have been in space-domain (i.e. the
use of physical wires). In this section, we shall introduce a completely different
kind of switching · time-division switching.
In contrast to space-division switching where dedicated paths are used, time-

division switching involves the partitioning of a lower-speed data stream into
segments that share a higher-speed data stream with other data segments. The
individual segments or slots are manipulated by the control logic to route data
from input to output. As opposed to space division switching which can support
either an analog or a digital environment, time-division switching is a purely
digital switching technique. Time-division switching consists of three concepts:
time-division multiplexing (TDM), time-slot interchanger (TSI) and time-
multiplex switching (TMS). We shall briefly introduce these concepts and
illustrate how to construct a time-division switch based on them.
Time-division Multiplexing
Time-division multiplexing (TDM) is a technique that allows multiple signals to
share a single transmission line by separating the signals in time. As TDM is a
digital technique, we shall assume all the input signal is in digital format.
Otherwise, analog-to-digital conversion should be applied to the input signal.
Suppose we have M low-speed digital signals and we would like to transmit

them over a single transmission line. A special digital circuit known as a
multiplexer (MUX) is used to combine the M low-speed digital signals into a
single high-speed multiplexed signal.
The MUX first splits each piece of digital data into segments of a fixed size (say,
100 bytes). Then the MUX choose a frame with a fixed time interval (T) and
divides each frame into M time slots of duration T/M. Each of the M inputs is
assigned to a dedicated time slot in a frame to transmit its segment of data. This
frame pattern is repeated periodically. For example, the mth input is allocated to
the mth slot in a frame and only the data from the mth input can be transmitted
in the mth slot. An M:1 multiplexer is a multiplexer that can combine M inputs to
a single output.
A 4:1 multiplexer is shown in Figure 1.18. In the figure, there are four time slots
in a frame and each slot is allocated to a particular input. Suppose the duration of
each slot is one second and so each frame lasts for four seconds. The input 1
transmits its data in slot 1. Then input 2 transmits in slot 2, input 3 in slot 3 and
input 4 in slot 4. This completes a frame period and input 1 starts to transmit in
slot 1 again. This frame pattern is repeated every four seconds.
a frame
1 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1
2 4:1 Output
Input
3 MUX
4
Figure 1.18: A 4:1 multiplexer
Consequently, if the input rate of data is R, the output rate of the MUX will be
MR, where M is the number of inputs. This limits the number of inputs into a
MUX. For instance, a 200:1 MUX with an input rate of 10 Mbps requires an
output rate of 2 Gbps. A MUX operating at this speed is very expensive.
The multiplexed signal contains data from all the M inputs. How can we retrieve
the corresponding data from the multiplexed signal at the receiving side? At the
other end of the transmission line, the individual signals are separated out by
means of a circuit called a demultiplexer (DEMUX). The idea is as follows: each
input is allocated to a fixed slot in a frame in the MUX; i.e., input m is allocated to
the slot m in a frame. After going through the high-speed transmission line, the
DEMUX determines the output from the location of the slot in the frame. That is,
the data in slot m will be forwarded to output m. Therefore, MUX-DEMUX
mechanisms form a one-to-one correspondence with input m connecting to
output m only.
This MUX-DEMUX mechanism is known as Time-Division Multiplexing (TDM)

as shown in Figure 1.19. Multiple signals are grouped together with separation in
time. TDM is widely used in telephone networks and mobile communications.
low speed low speed

1 high-speed 1
2 4:1 transmission line 1:4 2
Input Output
3 MUX DEMUX 3
4 4
1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1
Figure 1.19: Time division multiplexing
Time-slot Interchanger (TSI)

The MUX uniquely maps input m to time slot m in a frame. Then, DEMUX can
determine the correct input-output pairs from the order of the time slots. Suppose
we expand this idea a little bit: we allow the order of time slots to swap before
sending it to the DEMUX. Before going into detail about this, we will consider the
following simple example in Figure 1. 20.
1 2
4 3 2 1 1 3 4 2
2 4:1 1:4 4
Input TSI Output
3 MUX DEMUX 3
4 1
Figure 1.20: Time division switch
Four inputs · 1, 2, 3 and 4 · are multiplexed into a frame and the order of the
time slots is 12341234⁄ Now we add a special control unit known as a time-slot
interchanger (TSI) before the DEMUX. This control unit reorders the time slots in
the input frame such that the new order is 24312431⁄ Then this new output
frame (with reordered time slots) is sent to DEMUX. As discussed previously, the
DEMUX separates out individual signals according to the slot position in the
frame. Thus, input 1 is connected to output 4, input 2 is connected to output 1,
input 3 is connected to output 3 and input 4 is connected to output 2. We have
effectively made the following input-output pairs: 1 → 4, 2 → 1, 3 → 3 and 4 →
2 using the TSI process. In other words, we have switched the signals in the time
domain, and this is the basic idea of time-division switching.
A time-division switch is a combination of a multiplexer, a time-slot interchanger

and a demultiplexer, that is, a MUX-TSI-DEMUX mechanism. An m × n time-
division switch is functionally equivalent to an m × n crossbar switch.
Figure 1.20 presents a 4 × 4 time-division switch. First, the four inputs are
multiplexed and the multiplexed signal enters the TSI, then the TSI exchanges the
order of the time slots and finally the interchanged frame is forwarded to the
DEMUX for output.
The time-slot interchanger (TSI) is the heart of the time-division multiplexing.

Time-slot interchangers accept input frames and produce output frames in which
time slots have been reordered. TSI is usually implemented using random-access
memory (RAM). It belongs to the category of memory switches because the
switching fabric between the inputs and outputs is merely a buffer memory.
A TSI works as follows: when the input frame is ready to be processed, each slot is
written to a RAM inside the interchanger. Memory cells in the TSI buffer are in a
one-to-one correspondence with the input time slots. Digital data arriving inside a
time slot of the frame is written into the corresponding memory cell in the buffer.
That is, the slots are written in an order such that buffer cell i contains slot i. After a
whole frame is stored in the RAM, the data in the stored frame can be read out in
an order defined by the TSI. If the data in time slot i is to be switched to time slot 1,
this data will be read out first on the output frame. Similarly, if the data in time slot
j is to be switched to time slot k, this data will be read out at the kth slot on the
output frame. In this way, switching is performed in the time domain.
input frame output frame

data in data out
d c b a c d a b
a
b
c
write read address
d buffer
address
(data memory)
2 b
1 a
4 d
time 3 c
slot
counter address memory
Figure 1.21: Time-slot interchanger
An example is shown in Figure 1.21. The input frame is divided into four slots,
with the first one assigned a and the fourth one assigned d. When the frame
enters TSI, the TSI first writes each slot of the input frame into a buffer. The slots
are written in order, so slot k is located in buffer address k. Thus, the write
address sequence is a, b, c, d. Suppose we want the output sequence to be b, a, d,
c. Then the TSI will interchange the time slots with the read address sequence as
b, a, d, c. This output frame is sent to the DEMUX for connection.
Time-slot interchangers are a simple, effective way of switching time-division

multiplexed data. However, the size of such time-division switches is limited in
terms of the number of available connections by the memory access speed. To
keep pace with the input, data must be read into and out of memory as fast as
they arrive. For example, suppose we would like to read and write m slots in a
frame period of 125 μs. The memory is accessed twice in each time slot, once for
reading and once for writing. If each time this memory access takes 100 ns, the
equation for the time needed to process a frame is 2m × 100 ns = 125 μs.
125 10−6 1
Hence, we can support at most m = × × = 625 lines. Consequently, a
100 10−9 2
TSI unit can support only a limited number of connections.
Time-multiplexed Switch
We have argued that the size of TSI-based time-division switches is limited by
memory access speed. Furthermore, for a fixed memory access speed, the delay at
the TSI also increases as the size of a switch increases. This limits the speed of
inputs that can be supported by a switch. To overcome these problems, multiple
TSI units could be used. This idea is similar to what you learned earlier about
building a large switch using multiple small size switches. Let us consider the
simple example in Figure 1.22 to explore the idea.
a b a d a
b
2×2
switch
c
d
d c b c
Figure 1.22: Time-multiplexed switching
In the following discussion, I shall use the term ÂchannelÊ to refer to a particular
input (or user) to avoid confusion with the term ÂslotÊ which refers to the position
in a frame. Here we have two time-multiplexed streams that have their own TSIs.
To connect two channels (e.g. a and b) entering a single TSI, we can simply
interchange their time slots. Nevertheless, to connect a channel (e.g. b) on one
TDM stream (going into one TSI) to a channel (e.g. d) on another TDM stream
(going into another TSI) requires us to switch their positions in the two
multiplexed streams. How can we do it?
If you apply your knowledge from our previous discussion, you should
recognize that some form of space-division switching can do this. Generally, we
do not wish to switch all of the time slots from one stream to another because not
all the channels in one stream need to connect to all the channels in another
stream. Instead, we would like to do it one slot at a time so only those channels
that are swapping their positions in different streams are moved. This technique
of switching time-multiplexed stream is known as time-multiplexed-switching

(TMS).
The idea of time-multiplexed switching is very simple. Let us assume that the
frames and time slots for different streams are synchronized. That is, the slots in
different streams all arrived at the same time. Each multiplexed stream is
connected to an input of a space-division switch as shown in Figure 1.22. During
the duration of a time slot, each input may request a connection to an output. The
space-division switch could be set for the input-output connections required for
that time slot. As shown in Figure 1.23(a), at the first time slot, the 2 × 2 switch is in
the bar state and channels a and c stay at the upper and lower streams
respectively. During the next time slot, the connections for the space-division
switch would be reconfigured for that slot. In Figure 1.23(b), at the second time
slot, the 2 × 2 switch is in the cross state, channel b is moved to the lower stream
and channel d is moved to the upper stream. The combined effect is shown in
Figure 1.23(c).
The synchronization of frames assures that different channels in different time-

multiplexed streams are switched simultaneously in the crossbar switch. This can
be achieved by using a frame buffer to align the frame timing across the inputs.
In Figure 1.23 (a) and (b), we can see that the switch is in bar state in time slot 1
and cross state in time slot 2. Therefore, the space-division switch is time
multiplexed from slot to slot. Since the order of slots is repeated after a frame
period, the connection pattern of the crossbar will also repeat itself after a frame
period. For example, the connection pattern for the crossbar will be bar, cross,
bar, cross, ⁄ etc. in Figure 1.23.
a a
c c
Figure 1.23(a): Connections of space division switch in time slot 1
b d
d b
Figure 1.23(b): Connections of space division switch in time slot 2
b a d a
2×2
d c b c
Figure 1.23(c): Overall effect after combining slots 1 and 2

2 1
1
2×2
2
1 2
Figure 1.23(d): Simplified representation of time multiplexed switch
Let us consider the TMS in Figure 1.23(c) again. In the first time slot, input
channel a is connected to the upper output port of the 2 × 2 switch while input
channel c is connected to the lower output port. In the second time slot, input
channel b is connected to the lower output port while input channel d is
connected to the upper output port. The identity of the input channel (i.e. a, b,
etc.) is not useful to the 2 × 2 switch. As far as the 2 × 2 switch is concerned, it
only needs to know how the switch should be connected in a particular time slot.
For instance, input 1 should be connected to output 1 and input 2 connected to
output 2 in time slot 1 (refer to Figure 1.23(a)).
To simplify the figure we shall use the following notation relating to time-
multiplexed switching: the number in a slot in an input frame indicates the
desired output of that frame at that particular time slot. A simplified
representation for the TMS in Figure 1.23(c) is shown in Figure 1.23(d). In Figure
1.23(d), inputs 1, 2 request connections to outputs 1, 2 in the slot 1 and inputs 1, 2
request connections to outputs 2, 1 in time slot 2. This simplified representation
can help us to understand complex switching networks.
You should now have a basic idea of how time-multiplexed switching works.
LetÊs consider a more complicated case as shown in Figure 1.24, in which four
input frames have three slots per frame and are entering a 4 × 4 switch. The
space-division switch could be a single stage switch or a multi-stage switch.
Input frames Outputs
1 4 2 1
4 1 3 4×4 2
2 3 4 switch 3
3 2 1 4
Figure 1.24: A 4 × 4 switch with 4 time multiplexed input stream
The 4 × 4 switch will have the connection set-up as shown in Figure 1.25(a). That
is, inputs 1, 2, 3 and 4 request connections to outputs 2, 3, 4 and 1 in the first time
slot in Figure 1.24. Similarly, inputs 1, 2, 3 and 4 request connections to outputs 4,
1, 3, 2 in the second time slot and connections to outputs 1, 4, 2, 3 in the third time
slot. Their connections are shown in Figure 1.25 (b) and (c) respectively. Thus
TMS can be viewed as multiple space division switches working at different

times.
Important notes: The inputs here refer to the four inputs to the 4 × 4 switch while
the outputs refer to the four outputs from the 4 × 4 switch. They are not the same
as the input channels entering the MUX or the output channels leaving the
DEMUX. In fact, there are totally 12 input channels and output channels in Figure
1.25 because we have four frames with three slots per frame. Make sure you are
not in any confusion about these terms.
Time slot 1
Inputs Outputs
1 1 input output
2 2 1 2
3 3 2 3
4 4 3 4
4 1
(a)
Time slot 2
Inputs Outputs
1 1 input output
2 2 1 4
3 3 2 1
4 4 3 3
4 2
(b)
Time slot 3
Inputs Outputs
1 1 input output
2 2 1 1
3 3 2 4
4 4 3 2
4 3
(c)
Figure 1.25: The input-output mapping changes from slot to slot in the space division
switch in time multiplexed switching mode.
Nevertheless, different inputs to the TMS may want to connect to the same
output in the same slot. This is termed output conflict, which means two or more
inputs are heading for the same output. As shown in Figure 1.26(a), the inputs 1
and 4 in the input frame both have the number 2 in their first slot, which means
that they both want to connect to output 2 in the first time slot. Similarly, inputs 2
and 3 are also competing for output 3 in the first time slot. Furthermore, inputs 1
and 2 are contending for output 1 in the second time slot and inputs 1 and 2 are
contending for output 4 in the third time slot. This conflict is quite unavoidable
because transmission links incident to a switch may originate from different
switches, and these switches typically do not cooperate to avoid this conflict.
The TSI mechanism can be used to ease the output conflicts by interchanging
time slots on a link so that conflicts with other links no longer exist. In Figure
1.26(b), a TSI is added in front of each input line to the 4 × 4 TMS to interchange
the order of time slots within each input frame. After the operation of TSI, inputs
2 and 3 are no longer contending the same output 3 in the first time slot. In fact,
you can check that there is no output conflict in other time slots as well. How can
the switch resolve these output conflicts? This requires a central control to
coordinate different TSIs to interchange slots to avoid output conflicts.
Input frames Outputs
4 1 2 1
4 1 3 4×4 2
2 4 3 switch 3
1 3 2 4
Figure 1.26(a): Example of output conflict
1 4 2
4 1 2 TSI 1
4 1 3
4 1 3 TSI 4×4 2
2 3 4 switch
2 4 3 TSI 3
3 2 1
1 3 2 TSI 4
Figure 1.26(b): Example of how TSI can remove the output conflict
It can be shown that adding a TSI to each input of a non-blocking switch is

sufficient to remove all output conflicts provided that the number of requests per
frame for each output is no more than the number of slots in a frame. Otherwise,
the output would become overloaded. For instance, suppose all the four inputs in
Figure 1.27 are contending for output 1 in the first time slot and we have only
three slots in a frame. No matter how you interchange the order of slots, there are
at least two inputs competing for output 1! Hence we have an overloaded
situation.
3 2 1
2 3 1 4×4
4 2 1 switch
3 4 1
Figure 1.27: Example of output overloaded and TSI fails to resolve conflict
This two-stage switching network is constructed by concatenating the TMS and

TSI stages. The TMS stage, which moves slots from one stream to another, is
referred to as ÂSÊ (space-domain switching) and the TSI stage is referred to as ÂTÊ
(time-domain switching). Such a system is generally described by enumeration of
the stages from input to output, using the symbols T and S. Hence the network in
Figure 1.26(b) is a two-stage TS switch.
The basic TS switching is sufficient to remove output conflict and to switch time
slots on to the right output frame. Nevertheless, the slots can appear in any order
in the output frame since the TSIs have reordered the slots to avoid output
conflict. The input channel may be connected to the wrong output channel by the
DEMUX. If we add another TSI stage at the output of a TMS, we rearrange the
slots in the output frame to get the correct sequence. In doing so, any input
channel could be connected to any other output channel. This three stage
configuration is called TST switching.
Let us look at an example to illustrate the operation of TST switches. We have

totally three different time frames with three slots per frame. These nine input
channels (a, b, c, ⁄ i) want to connect to nine distinct output channels (1, 2, 3, ⁄
9) as shown in brackets in Figure 1.28(a). For example, input channel b wants to
connect to output channel 7 and we shall use (b, 7) to represent this input-output
pair relationship. A group of three input channels are multiplexed to form a
multiplexed stream, e.g. we have the input-output pairs (a, 4), (b, 7) and (c, 5) in
the first frame. Let us look at the input frames before the TSI in Figure 1.28(a). In
the first time slot, we have these three input-output pairs (a, 4), (d, 8) and (g, 9).
Recall that output channels 7, 8 and 9 are grouped to the third output frame
before demultiplexing. Hence, both (d, 8) and (g, 9) want to move to the third
frame through the 3 × 3 switch. That is, they both need to connect to the third
output port of the 3 × 3 switch. If (d, 8) and (g, 9) both switch to the third frame in
the same time slot, there will be output conflict in the 3 × 3 switch. In Figure
1.28(a), the targeted output port for the switch for each input-output pair is
shown, e.g. the targeted output ports for (a, 4) and (d, 8) are 2 and 3 respectively.
Again we can use TSIs to interchange the time slots to remove such output
conflicts as shown in Figure 1.28(a). After passing through the TSI, the inputs to
the 3 × 3 switch become (a, 4), (d, 8) and (h, 1) in the first time slot. Since these
input channels will connect to different output frames, there will be no output
conflict in the 3 × 3 switch.
You may wonder how we can coordinate different TSIs to interchange the slots.
As mentioned previously, there is a central control to perform this job and the
detailed operation is beyond the scope of this course. Each input channel passes
through the TSI and TMS to get to the right output frame. After the TS stage in
Figure 1.28(a), the input channel d (destined for output channel 8) is correctly
switched to the third frame that is connecting to output channels 7ă9. However, it
appears in the wrong slot (the first slot is for output to channel 7). Consequently,
input channel d is wrongly connected to output channel 7 after demultiplexing as
shown in Figure 1.28(a).
To get back the correct input-output connection, a TSI is added after each output
of 3 × 3 switch. With the additional TSI, slots are rearranged to the correct order
and they are ready for output connection as shown in Figure 1.28(b). For instance,
input channel d is now correctly connected to output channel 8 after
demultiplexing.
targeted output port
2 3 2 3 2 2
(a, 4) (c, 5) (b, 7) (a, 4) (b, 7) (c, 5) (a, 4) (e, 3) (f, 2) (h, 1) 1 (h, 1)
M T D
(b, 7) U S E 2 (f, 2)
X I M
(c, 5) 3 (e, 3)
1 1 3 1 1 3
(d, 8) (f, 2) (e, 3) (d, 8) (e, 3) (f, 2) (d, 8) (i, 6) (c, 5) (a, 4) 4 (a, 4)
M T D
(e, 3) U S 3×3 E 5 (c, 5)
X I M
(f, 2) 6 (i, 6)
2 1 3 2 3 1
(g, 9) (i, 6) (h, 1) (g, 9) (i, 6) (g, 9) (h, 1) (b, 7) (g, 9) (d, 8) 7 (d, 8)
M T D
(h, 1) U S E 8 (g, 9)
X I M
(i, 6) 9 (b, 7)
output channel T S
input channel
Figure 1.28(a): Example of how TS switch can give incorrect input-output connection
2 3 2 3 2 2
(a, 4) (c, 5) (b, 7) (a, 4) (b, 7) (c, 5) (a, 4) (e, 3) (f, 2) (h, 1) (e, 3) (f, 2) (h, 1) 1 (h, 1)
M T T D
(b, 7) U S S E 2 (f, 2)
X I I M
(c, 5) 3 (e, 3)
1 1 3 1 1 3
(d, 8) (f, 2) (e, 3) (d, 8) (e, 3) (f, 2) (d, 8) (i, 6) (c, 5) (a, 4) (i, 6) (c, 5) (a, 4) 4 (a, 4)
M T T D
(e, 3) U S 3×3 S E 5 (c, 5)
X I I M
(f, 2) 6 (i, 6)
2 1 3 2 3 1
(g, 9) (i, 6) (h, 1) (g, 9) (i, 6) (g, 9) (h, 1) (b, 7) (g, 9) (d, 8) (g, 9) (d, 8) (b, 7) 7 (b, 7)
M T T D
(h, 1) U S S E 8 (d, 8)
X I I M
(i, 6) 9 (g, 9)
T S T
Figure 1.28(b): Example of how TST switch can get correct input-output connection
Equivalence of Switching Networks

We have argued that multiple-stage networks can be built up by the different
combination of TMS stages (S) and TSI stages (T). Therefore we can build TS, TST
or STS networks as we want. Why do we build these different kinds of switching
networks using T or S? What is the relationship between STS or TST etc.?
Logically, there is no difference between the function of a T stage and an S stage.

We can build a TSI using a space-division switch, as shown in Figure 1.29.
Although this may not be the best way to build a TSI, it can be done anyway.
Thus, if we replace all the T stages with S stages, a TST or STS switching network
is logically equivalent to an SSS switching network.
1 1 3 3
2 2 1 1
MUX DEMUX MUX DEMUX
3 3 2 2
TSI
Figure 1.29: Building a time slot interchanger using a space division switch
Following the same arguments, an STS network is also logically equivalent to a

TST network. However, STS is more costly than TST because it requires one more
space-division switch than a TST switch. Furthermore, data entering the middle
TSIs in STS will require synchronization and so TST is always preferable to STS.
A structure of STS is shown in Figure 1.30.
TSI
2×3 3×2
TSI
switch switch
TSI
Figure 1.30: Example of STS switch
In summary, a time-division switch is logically equivalent to a space-division

switch and they only differ in the implementation methods. As it is easier to
visualize a space-division switch, we shall only concentrate on space-division
switches in the remaining part of this course. However, you should be aware that
the discussions are equally valid for both types of switches.
SELF-TEST 1.4
The following figure shows the internal structure of a TSI. The TSI will
first read incoming data one by one and write it into the data memory.
Indexes are marked to the address memory for the corresponding
output slots. The first one, ÂaÊ, with its index, Â1Ê, has been done for you.
Complete the figure.
h g f e d c b a c e a g b h d f
a
Read
Write Read
Time
slot
counter 1
Data memory Address memory

SELF-TEST 1.5
What are the advantages of TST over STS?
BLOCKING AND NON-BLOCKING PROPERTIES OF

SWITCHES
After studying the previous sections, you should now have a good
understanding of the different kinds of switches. For space-division switching,
there are many ways of connecting them to form a larger switching network (or
switch). However, in connecting the inputs to the outputs, it is not always
possible to achieve the desired connection configuration, and blocking occurs.
Most of the work in switching design is to minimize the chance of blocking at the
lowest possible cost.
We are mostly interested in differentiating switching networks as possessing

blocking or non-blocking properties. In terms of non-blocking switching
networks, we can further classify them into two categories: the strictly non-
blocking (SNB) networks and the rearrangeably non-blocking (RNB) networks. In
this section, we shall briefly describe the conditions required for these non-
blocking properties. Examples will be given so that you can have a better
understanding upon finishing this section. You will learn how to distinguish a
given switching network as SNB or RNB. We will also discuss how to construct
RNB and SNB networks using switching cells.
Blocking
Before you learn about non-blocking, however, it is logical that you must fully
understand blocking. Consider a switch with m inputs and n outputs. Given that
there are k active signals at the inputs of the switch, it is possible that not all of
the k active signals can be routed to the destined k of the n outputs. If this is the
case, we can say that blocking occurs.
What causes blocking? If the number of active signals, the number k, is greater
than the available number of output ports of the switch, the number n, it is
obvious that blocking must occur · rather like trying to fit 30 cans of soft drink
into a 24-can case. We will focus on conditions where the number of inputs into a
switch is not larger than the number of outputs; i.e., m ª n. We are then sure that
the number of inputs with active signals must be smaller than or equal to the
number of outputs, but not greater.
Before going into detail, you should review what a 2 × 2 switch does since, in
most of the later examples, the networks are built using 2 × 2 switching cells.
Remember, the 2 × 2 switching cell is actually a basic switching element
consisting of two inputs and two outputs. It allows only two connection
configurations: the bar state and the cross state, which were previously shown in
Figure 1.14.
Now youÊll look at two examples in which the two different kinds of blocking are
illustrated. Consider a 4 × 4 switch which is constructed using four 2 × 2
switching cells as shown in Figure 1.31. The connection assignments of the four
inputs in Figure 1.31 are as follows:
Input 1 ă a ă e ă Output 1, Input 2 ă b ă gă Output 3, Input 3ă c ă f ă
Output 1, Input 4ă dă h ă Output 4.
From Figure 1.31, you can see in the top right 2 × 2 switching cell that both inputs
e and f want to connect with output 1. However, this is not a valid state for a 2 × 2
switching cell, i.e. either e or f can connect to output 1 but both cannot connect at
the same time. Figure 1.31(a) shows e connected to output 1, while Figure 1.31(b)
shows f connected to output 1. A switching cell, however, can only be in a bar or
a cross state; those states cannot be mixed. From the connection assignment, both
input 1 and input 3 want to set up a connection with output 1 simultaneously. In
this case, we have two inputs contending for the same output, therefore either
input 1 or input 3 cannot be connected to output 1 as desired and blocking
occurs. This is called external blocking because multiple inputs are contending
for the same output.
Inputs Outputs
a e
1 1
b f
2 2
c g
3 3
d h
4 4
(a)
Inputs Outputs
a e
1 1
b f
2 2
c g
3 3
d h
4 4
(b)
Figure 1.31: External blocking of a switch
LetÊs look at another case. Consider the following connection assignments:

Input 2 ă b ă g ă Output 4, Input 3 ă c ă f ă Output 1, Input 4 ă c ă f ă Output 2.
The connections are shown in Figure 1.32.

Inputs Outputs
a e
1 1
b f
2 2
c g
3 3
d h
4 4
(a)
Inputs Outputs
a e
1 1
b f
2 2
c g
3 3
d h
4 4
(b)
Figure 1.32: Internal blocking of a switch
From the connection assignment (above), different inputs are paired up with
different outputs, and so there should not be any external blocking. Focus,
however, on the lower 2 × 2 switching cell of the first stage. Although Input 3 and
Input 4 want to connect with two different outputs of the 4 × 4 switch, the two
signals are contending for the same switching cell output port c, and that is not a
valid state in a 2 × 2 switching cell. As both input ports are contending for the
(internal) line c ă f, this is called internal blocking. Only one of the signals can
access the line (Input 3 is connected to c in Figure 1.32(a) while Input 4 is
connected to c in Figure 1.32(b)), and hence connections from Input 3 to Output 1
and from Input 4 to Output 2 cannot co-exist.
In summary, external blocking happens when two inputs of the switch are
destined for the same output of the switch. The external blocking is unavoidable
because we cannot control the connection request by different inputs. If the
inputs are in packet form, this may be solved by temporarily storing the
contending packets in a buffer. We shall discuss the buffer switch in a later
section. Internal blocking, however, happens when two active signals contend for
the same output port at a switching cell level inside the multistage switch.
Generally speaking, internal blocking can be solved by designing internal non-
blocking switching networks. The design of (internal) non-blocking multistage
switching networks will be our next topic.
ACTIVITY 1.2
Consider the 4 × 4 switch in the following figure. Suppose Input 1 wants

to connect to Output 1 and Input 2 wants to connect to Output 2. Can
the connections be set up as desired? If not, please explain your answer.
Discuss your answer in your groupÊs discussion board.
1
1
2 2
3 3
4 4
Strictly Non-blocking Switch (SNB)

In this section, we are interested in looking at (internal) non-blocking switches.
First, we should have a clear definition of non-blocking properties and, to be
more specific, under what kind of conditions the connection assignments will be
achieved.
The definition of a strictly non-blocking (SNB) switch is as follows:
A switch is strictly non-blocking if an idle input can always be connected to an

idle output while the existing connection assignment on the switch remains
unaltered.
For a strictly non-blocking switch, whenever a new active signal comes in it can
be routed to the destined output while the current connections are not changed or
disconnected.
This has great practical implications. Imagine that you are talking to a friend via a
switch and then a new user wants to make a call through the same switch. You
would be very unhappy if there was any disruption of service due to the addition
of this new user.
In order to have a deeper understanding of strictly non-blocking switches, letÊs

take a look at the following example:
Consider a 4 × 4 switch, which is illustrated in Figure 1.33.
Inputs Outputs
A A
B B
C C
D D
Figure 1.33: A 4 × 4 strictly non-blocking switch
Assume that there are four connection assignments, A, B, C and D. Further

assume that A, B and C are existing connections while D is the connection under
consideration. Given that the previous three connection assignments have been
made successfully, in the strictly non-blocking switch, the last connection, D, can
always be made. It is good for you to try this out.
ACTIVITY 1.3
Try to examine the 4 × 4 switch in Figure 1.33 as a strictly non-blocking

switch. Again there are four connection assignments, A, B, C and D.
Firstly, you arbitrarily connect input A to one of the four outputs.
Secondly, you randomly connect input B to one of the remaining three
outputs. Thirdly, you connect input C to one of the two possible
outputs. Finally, you connect input D to the leftover output. Remember
that you should add the connection assignments one by one and see if
they get blocked or not. Furthermore, you must follow the cross (or bar)
state of the cells which are already set. That is, you cannot rearrange the
state of connected cells.
Rearrangeably Non-blocking Switch (RNB)

Besides the strictly non-blocking switch, there is another kind of non-blocking
switch, the rearrangeably non-blocking switch. The definition of a rearrangeably
non-blocking switch is as follows:
A switch is rearrangeably non-blocking if, for all input-output mappings,

a connection between an input-output pair exists for all pairs in the
mapping.
What is the difference between SNB and RNB? Well, an idle input can always
connect to an idle output in SNB without changing the existing connection
assignment in the switch. In contrast, RNB only suggests that it is possible to

establish a connection between any input-output pair. This may require the
alteration of the existing connection assignments. Therefore, RNB is easier to
satisfy compared to SNB.
To get a better understanding of RNB, let us suppose all the active signals arrive
at the inputs at the same time. Provided that there are no two active signals
competing for a single output, all the required connections can be achieved if the
switch is rearrangeably non-blocking. However, if the active signals arrive
asynchronously and connection paths are established one by one, blocking may
occur. The following two examples will show this fact.
A 4 × 4 rearrangeably non-blocking switch is illustrated in Figure 1.34. Suppose

we want to establish the following input-output connection pairs: input A to
output 1, input D to output 4 and input B to output 3.
Inputs Outputs
A 1
(a)
Inputs Outputs
A 1
D 4
(b)
Inputs Outputs
A 1
B 2
D 4
(c)
Figure 1.34: Blocking occurs in a 4 × 4 rearrangeably non-blocking
switch if inputs arrive one by one
In Figure 1.34, let us assume the active signals arrive one by one. First active
signal A arrives and it is connected to output 1 of the switch as shown in Figure
1.34(a). Then active signal D arrives and it is connected to output 4 shown in
Figure 1.34(b). Now, an active signal B arrives and wants to be routed to output 3
of the switch. Unfortunately, the remaining valid path (shown as a dotted line in
Figure 1.34(c)) is to connect input B to output 2, but not to output 3! Hence, input
B is blocked by the switch even though output 3 is idle.
In contrast, suppose the three active signals A, B and D arrive at the same instant
and they would like to connect to outputs 1, 3 and 4 respectively. Then we
consider them together and they can be connected to the desired outputs as
shown in Figure 1.35.
Inputs Outputs
A 1
B 2
D 4
Figure 1.35: If all the three inputs A, B and C are considered together, they can all connect
to the desired outputs in the same 4 x 4 rearrangeably non-blocking switch
To have a deeper understanding of the rearrangeably non-blocking switch, letÊs

look at another example. Consider the 8 × 8 switching network which is shown in
Figure 1.36. You can see the five connections that have already been established.
Inputs Outputs
1
4
2 2
(*) 1
3 (*)
4 3
5 5
Figure 1.36: An 8 × 8 rearrangeably non-blocking switch
Suppose now you want to set up a new connection, (*), at the fifth input port. You
can easily verify that the required connection cannot be achieved without
changing the existing established connections. In fact (*) can only connect to the
first or second output ports in Figure 1.36. In order to avoid blocking, we can
consider all the six connections (the five established connections and (*) together.
In the following activity, you can show that this 8 × 8 switching network is
rearrangeably non-blocking.
ACTIVITY 1.4
Try to achieve the connection assignments of the above example of an 8
× 8 rearrangeably non-blocking switch by considering all the signals
together. First, you can pick one of the six input-output pairs and
connect them together. Then, you can establish connections one by one.
If you fail to connect an input to its desired output, you have to stop and
restart the connection process again. This is a kind of trial and error
exercise and so it may take you a few times to establish all the six
connections.
One possible connection pattern is shown in Figure 1.37 for your

reference.
Inputs Outputs
1
4
2 2
(*) 1
3 (*)
4 3
5 5
Figure 1.37: An 8 × 8 rearrangeably non-blocking switch

with all the connections achieved
In the above exercise, how many times did you try to set up all the
connections in this 8 × 8 switch? Imagine the situation of building a 512 ×
512 switch.
From the above discussions on the non-blocking properties of switches, you

should be able to see that the strictly non-blocking property is a superset of the
rearrangeably non-blocking property. That is, strictly non-blocking property
implies rearrangeably non-blocking property but the reverse doesnÊt hold. In

other words, a strictly non-blocking switch is also a rearrangeably non-blocking
switch, but a rearrangeably non-blocking switch is not necessarily a strictly non-
blocking switch.
In the above examples, eight 2 × 2 switching cells are needed to construct the 4 × 4
strictly non-blocking switch in Figure 1.33, while only six are needed for the 4 × 4
rearrangeably non-blocking switch in Figure 1.35. This is reasonable since SNB
implies RNB, but the reverse doesnÊt hold. Hence, it is more expensive to
construct an SNB switch than an RNB switch (e.g. we need two additional 2 × 2
switching cells in this case).
Despite the lower cost of rearrangeably non-blocking switches, they have several
limitations. First, a rearrangeably non-blocking switch is only non-blocking when
the active signals arrive at the inputs synchronously. This is not easy to achieve
since we cannot require all the applications to start at the same time and the
signals to arrive together. Second, even if alteration is allowed, the user may
suffer a disturbance due to the alteration. Third, frequent alteration can cause a
burden on the central control of a switch. Consider a 512 × 512 switch that is
made of multistage 2 × 2 switching cells. This will involve numerous complicated
processes to rearrange a large number of connections whenever a new signal
arrives.
So far we have only described the properties of SNB and RNB switches.
However, we have not introduced the mechanism for building such non-blocking
switches. The three-stage construction of SNB switches and RNB switches will be
discussed in detail in Unit 2.
ACTIVITY 1.5
Which of the following networks are strictly non-blocking,

rearrangeably non-blocking or blocking?
(a) Inputs Outputs
A 1
B 2
C 3
D 4
E 5
F 6
(b) Inputs Outputs
1
A
B 2
3
4
C
D 5
6
7
E 8
F
9
Inputs Outputs
(c)
A 1
B 2
C 3
D 4
E 5
F 6
G 7
H 8
Inputs Outputs
(d) A 1
B I 2
C 3
D 4
E 5
II
F 6
OTHER TYPES OF SWITCHES

You have learned that you can build switching networks using space-division
switches and time-division switches. Besides these two types of switches, there
are other types of switches that can be constructed. They are bus switches,
memory switches and buffer switches.
Bus Switch
You have learned that bus topology is commonly used to transfer information
inside a computer. In fact, bus topology can be used to implement switches as
well. Furthermore, a bus switch can be implemented either as a space-division
bus switch or a time-division bus switch as shown in Figure 1.38 and Figure 1.39
respectively.
Input
1 bus
Control Control Control

Unit Unit Unit
a b c
Output
Figure 1.38: A space division bus switch
In Figure 1.38, each input terminal transmits data into a separate bus (the thick
horizontal lines 1, 2, 3) and so there are three input buses. You can imagine a bus
containing input data that is moving from left to right (and this is the reason why
the term ÂterminalÊ is used). There are three output terminals (the thin vertical
line a, b, c) tapping to each bus capable of reading data from all the buses. A
control unit is used to determine which data bus should be read by which output
terminal. For example, if bus 1 is bus switch read by output terminal b, input 1 is
connected to output b. If bus 2 is read by output terminals a and c, input 2 is
making multicast connections to outputs a and c. This particular bus switch is
equivalent to a space-division switch because different signals travel through
different physical buses. Similar to the function of crosspoints in a crossbar
switch, the control unit determines the input-output connection.
Instead of having a separate bus for each input terminal, there can be just a single
time-slotted bus. In Figure 1.39, we have three input terminals and each input
terminal writes data into a different time slot in the bus periodically. At regular
intervals, the control unit determines which output terminal reads data from a
slot in the bus as shown in Figure 1.39. If input terminal 1 wants to connect to
output terminal b, output terminal b just reads data from slots labelled 1. This
single bus architecture is known as a time-division bus switch because different

time slots in the bus separate different signals.
time-slotted bus
1
2 3 2 1 3 2 1 3 2 1
3
Control Control Control

Unit Unit Unit
a b c
Figure 1.39: The equivalent time division bus switch
Buffer Switches
You have learned that some switching networks are blocking networks. In the
case of packet switching, blocking occurs when more than one input packet want
to connect to the same output. Only one packet can go to the output and the other
contending input packets will be dropped during blocking. One way to decrease
the blocking rate without changing the architecture of these networks is
ÂbufferingÊ. In other words, we add buffers in switching networks to store the
contending input packets so that they will not simply be dropped during
blocking. The stored packets can be forwarded to the desired output when the
output is free. The idea is similar to calling a customer hotline. If you cannot talk
to a customer representative immediately, you can hang up the phone (blocking),
or you can wait for the next available representative (waiting).
Buffer switches can be divided into two types: input-buffer switches and output-
buffer switches. The basic ideas of the two switches are the same and they only
differ in the location of the buffer.
An input-buffer switch is used to store arriving packets at each input port of the
switch as shown in Figure 1.40. With input buffering, it provides an input queue
for each input port. The switch will allow one of these packets to reach its
destination while the remaining packets for the same destination will be
instructed to pass through the switch at a later time. Although buffer switches
can help to reduce blocking to some extent, a packet arriving at a full input buffer
will still be lost.
buffer
input output
1 1
switch
2 2
Input-buffer switch
Figure 1.40: Input-buffer switch
For input buffering, only one of the packets from different inputs contending for
the same output is sent. Alternatively, a switch node can be built such that all
contending packets at different inputs are sent and stored at the outputs as
shown in Figure 1.41. The output buffer switch provides an output queue for
each output port. Output buffering can give better performance than input
buffering, and youÊll learn more about that in Unit 2. Output buffering, however,
requires each node to be capable of simultaneously connecting all inputs to an
output. Moreover, the output buffer must be able to receive and manage packets
simultaneously. This increases the complexity of the output buffer switches.
Detailed information on buffer switches will be discussed in Units 2 and 3.
input output
1 1
switch
2 2
Output buffer switch
Figure 1.41: Output buffer switch
Memory Switches
Memory switching refers to switching implemented using random-access
memory (RAM). You have already learned about this kind of switching in TSI
because RAM is used to reorder the time slots in a frame. Furthermore, RAMs
can be used as buffers in buffer switches too.
Select inputs RAM

one by one (Shared-Buffer)
Inputs Outputs
1
1 1
• write •
read •
• • •
• • •
M N
K
Figure 1.42: Shared-buffer memory switch
Let us consider an M × N switch in Figure 1.42. An M × 1 switch multiplexes the

packets from the M inputs onto one output connected to a RAM (shared-buffer).
The buffer has a size of K packets and each incoming packet is mapped to an
empty space in the buffer. The buffer is shared by all outputs, so the switch is
called a shared-buffer memory switch. An output queue is formed when more
than one packet is destined for the same output. Each output has it own output
queue to store the incoming packets. The N outputs take turns reading out their
packets at the corresponding output queue from the memory through a 1 × N
switch. Blocking occurs whenever an arriving packet is dropped due to the buffer
being full. Therefore, the packet loss rate (i.e. how often a packet will be dropped)
is determined by the buffer size K. The exact value of K is defined by the
acceptable packet loss rate of the switching networks. The shared memory switch
conceptually works as in Figure 1.43. The queue size for each output in shared
memory switch is not fixed because total buffer space is shared by all the N
outputs. That is, the size of each output queue can be varied as long as the sum of
the sizes of the N output queues does not exceed the RAM size. Since we are
storing packets in a RAM, the packets in the same output queue are located
randomly in the memory. To tell the switch where to find the packets in an
output queue, each output queue has a linked list. If you did not study linked
lists in a programming course, you donÊt need to worry. The linked list basically
contains the address information of packets in the RAM. Each linked list has a
head and tail, corresponding to the first and last packets in the queue. Let us look
at the following example to see how linked lists work.
Suppose we have four input packets, 1, 2, 3 and 4 for output 1 and they are stored
in the output queue. Physically, these four packets are put in the buffer addresses
4, 9, 21 and 23 respectively, as shown in Figure 1.44. The head and tail of the
linked list are 4 and 23 respectively. Then the linked list for output queue 1 will
be 4 → 9 → 21 → 23. The arrow sign means the pointer to indicate the location
where the next packet to be sent to output 1 is located (the 'read' part). That is, the
packet in buffer address 4 is first sent to output 1. Then the packet in address 9
will be the second one and it is followed by the packet in address 21 and finally
the packet in address 23 should be sent.
buffer
.
. queue 1
.
.
. queue 2
write . read
.
.
.
.
. queue N
.
Figure 1.43: Output queue in shared-buffer memory switch
buffers
packet
address
Head packet 1 4
..
.
packet 2 9
..
.
packet 3 21
Tail packet 4 23
Figure 1.44: Operation of linked list
Every output owns a linked list, so there are totally N linked lists. The N linked
lists indicate all the used buffer locations (addresses). One additional linked list is
required to indicate the free buffer locations so that new packets that arrive can
be allocated to free buffer locations quickly. This linked list is called the free-list.
Each linked list has a head and tail, corresponding to the first and last packets in
the queue. Figure 1.45 shows the buffer management (linked-lists) in a shared-
buffer memory switch.
Pointer packet buffers address

Head 1 • packet 1 in list 1 1
..
.
• packet 2 in list 1 m-1
Head 2 • packet 1 in list 2 m
• packet 3 in list 1 m+1
..
.
Tail 1 • packet 2 in list 2 n
Tail 2 • packet 4 in list 1 n+1
..
.
• Empty K-1
K
Figure 1.45: Buffer management in a shared-buffer memory switch
From Figure 1.45, the linked-list 1 is head1 → 1 → m-1 → m+1 → n+1 → NULL
and the linked-list 2 is head2 → m → n → NULL. NULL means the linked list is
empty. That is, there are no more packets in the output queue. Notice that the
linked list contains the buffer addresses in order. The packet at the head of the
linked list will be the first one in the list to be sent out. Taking linked list 1 above
as an example, the first packet to be sent out is in buffer address 1. Thus, after it is
sent out, the linked list 1 will become head1 → m-1 → m+1 → n+1 → NULL.
Now buffer address 1 is free for future incoming packets and it is added to the
free-list.
Figure 1.46 shows an example of a 4 × 4 shared-buffer memory switch with a

buffer size of five. Out of the four incoming packets, three of them are destined
for output 1 and one of them is destined for output 3. The switch will write the
incoming packets one by one into the shared-buffer. Then the buffer pool will
look like Figure 1.47(a). The head of the linked-list of output 1 (head1) will point
to the buffer addresses in a FCFS (first-come-first-served) manner, that is, head1
→ 1 → 2 → 4, which is shown in Figure 1.47(b). The head of the linked-list of
output 3 will point to buffer address 3. The heads of the linked-lists of outputs 2
and 4 are pointed to NULL because there is no packet for them currently. After
the first cycle, the first packet in the buffer will be sent to output 1 and the third
packet will be sent to output 3. The remaining two packets destined for output 1
will stay in the buffer pool. In the second cycle, the second packet in the buffer is
sent to output 1. Similarly, the fourth packet in the buffer is forwarded to output
1 in the third cycle.
Input Shared buffer Outputs
1 1
1 2
3 3
1 4
Figure 1.46: An example of a shared-buffer memory switch
1 1
1 2
3 3
1 4
5
Head 1 2 4 Null
Figure 1.47: (a) Inside the buffer pool, (b) The linked-list of output 1
As suggested previously, blocking of packets can sometimes occur. Let us

consider the example in Figure 1.46 again. In the second cycle, there are two
occupied buffer spaces (2 and 4) left over from the previous cycle. For a buffer
size of five, we only have three free buffer spaces left for incoming packets as
shown in Figure 1.48. If all four inputs have packets arriving in the second cycle,
then one of them will be dropped. Of course we can avoid this problem by
increasing the shared-buffer size.
1
4
1 2
2
3
1
1 4
3
5
Figure 1.48
SPECIAL SWITCHING NETWORKS

In all the previous discussions, we were concerned with making point-to-point
connections in switches, which is known as point-to-point switching. That is, an
input is uniquely connected to an output. In this section we are going to show
you some special switching networks which do not follow this one-to-one
correspondence. Concentrators and multicast switches will serve as our
examples.
Before discussing these special switching networks, the mathematical meaning of

point-to-point switching is now introduced. Let I be a set of M inputs, and O be a
set of N outputs. A point-to-point connection pattern is defined as a set of pairs C
= {(i, o)} for which are distinct, and are also distinct. As shown in Figure 1.49, if
(i1, o1) and (i2, o2) are two connection patterns, then implies that . In mathematics,
C is called one-to-one mapping. Right now, you have a basic understanding of
the concept of point-to-point switching in terms of mathematics representation.
We can proceed to the non-point-to-point case.
I O
i1 o1 i1 i2
i2 o2 ⇒ o1 o2
Figure 1.49: Connection pattern in point-to-point switching
Concentrators
We have briefly described the 2 × 1 concentrator when we looked at switching
cells. A 2 × 1 concentrator only picks one of the two inputs to send to the output.
In the following, we shall consider a more general case. An M × N (where M > N)
concentrator has M inputs and N outputs. Again, let I be a set of M inputs, and O
be a set of N outputs.
For concentrators, a connection pattern C is defined by a subset A of I, as shown

in Figure 1.50. Each member of A is to be connected to a distinct but unspecified
output . In other words, at most, N out of possible M inputs are connected to the
outputs in a concentrator.
In packet switching in particular, the operation of a concentrator is to sort M

input packets to the extent that the N highest priority packets among them can be
separated from the remaining (M ă N) packets. Such a sorter can be constructed
as a multi-stage network of parallel sorting cells, which will be discussed further
in Unit 2.
Concentration is a common technique for resolving contention/blocking in

switching by packing active signals together. The detailed operation of
concentrators is beyond the scope of this course.
I O
A
To any member in O
Figure 1.50: Connection pattern in a concentrator
Multicast Switches and Copy Networks

As we have seen so far, most communications services such as telephone calls are
point-to-point communications. We do, however, have services such as television
broadcasts in which all network users receive the same programmes.
Multicasting means sending the same information from one source to a number
of desired destinations. Multicast switches allow an input to connect to more than
one output, and this idea is illustrated in Figure 1.51.
I O
Figure 1.51: Connection pattern in a multicast switch
Copy networks are built using multicast switches. The connection pattern is
defined by the set of pairs {(i, ni)} for which input I can be connected to ni
unspecified outputs . A copy network is responsible for making the exact number
of copies required of the input without worrying about the outputs from which
the copies emerge. For example, if input 1 wants to make a multicast connection
to three outputs, then it will have the connections pattern shown in Figure 1.52.
The copy network generates three copies of the input 1 and connects them to
three unspecified outputs, a, b, and c. More detailed descriptions of multicast
switches and copy networks will be covered in Unit 3.
I O
a
1
b
c
Figure 1.52: Example of multicast connection

SELF-TEST 1.7
What are the advantages and disadvantages of a shared-buffer memory

switch?
In this unit, the basic concepts and operation principles of switching networks
have been covered. The application of switches in telephone networks was
introduced, and you were shown how switches evolved from being controlled by
human operators to the pure digital electronic switch of today.
There are two kinds of connection techniques: circuit switching and packet
switching. For circuit switching, a path is dedicated to the two parties involved in
the call. No matter how the traffic of the path is, other connections canÊt access
the path dedicated to the particular connection. In packet switching, however,
data are chopped into packets and routed to the destination via different paths.
Since packets can go through different paths in packet switching, headers are
included in every packet to specify the source and destination addresses. Virtual
circuit switching · a hybrid of circuit switching and packet switching · was
then introduced.
The physical implementation (types) of switches was discussed in detail. We

introduced two different implementations of switches: a grid of crossbars in
space-division switches and a mechanism consisting of multiplexers, time-slot
interchangers and demultiplexers in time-division switches. Furthermore, we
have shown that a large switch can be constructed by interconnecting multi-
stages of small switches. We suggested that 2 × 2 switching cells can be used as
the basic building block to construct larger space-division switches.
The time slot interchanger (TSI) is the main element in building time-division
switches. Together with time-multiplexed switches, TSI can be used to build
multistage switches like TST and STS switches. Furthermore, we have illustrated
the functional equivalence of TSI and crossbar. Based on this argument, we
further argued the equivalence of TST and STS.
Based on different structures within switches, we suggested that some active

signals might be blocked as they could not connect to the desired destinations.
We introduced two different non-blocking properties: strictly non-blocking (SNB)
and rearrangeably non-blocking (RNB). SNB was shown to have a stronger
requirement than RNB. Although an RNB switch is less costly than an SNB
switch, the requirement of synchronous input signals in RNB limits its practical
application.
In addition to crossbar and TSI-based switches, we have introduced other types

of switches: bus switches, memory and buffer switches. Finally, we introduced
two specific switches: concentrators and multicast switches, which do not follow
this one-to-one correspondence.
Connection · Mapping of inputs to outputs of a switch.

configuration
External blocking · Blocking caused by two active inputs destined to

the same output.
Internal blocking · Blocking caused by contention of output port at

cell level in the switching network.
Multiplexer (MUX) · The circuit that combines signals at the source

(transmitting) end of a communications link is
known as a multiplexer (MUX). It accepts the input
from each individual end user, breaks each signal
into segments, and assigns the segments to the
composite signal in a rotating, repeating sequence.
Rearrangeably non- · A switch such that for all input-output mappings,

blocking switch a connection between an input-output pair exists
for all pairs in the mapping.
Star topology · A connection method which connects users by

using a centralized switch and structure similar to
a star.
Strictly non-blocking · An idle input in the switch can always be

switch connected to an idle output while the existing
connection assignment on the switch remains
unaltered.
Switching cells · A collection of basic switching elements, 1 × 1

crosspoint, 2 × 2 switching cell, 2 × 1 concentrator,
1 × 2 distributor.
Switching networks · A network formed by the interconnection of

switches.
Time division · A scheme in which multiple low-speed signals are

multiplexing (TDM) combined for transmission on a single high-speed
communications line. Each signal is mapped to a
fixed slot position in a frame.
Time slot · The device to change time-slot sequence within a

interchanger (TSI) frame.
Self-test 1.1
1. Star topology reduces the number of links required, n links for n users.
However, there are limits on the efficiency of centralized switches: the
greater the number of connected users, the lower the performance of the
switching function.
2. (i) (a) 50 (b) 1,225

(ii) (a) 5,000 (b) 12,497,500
(iii) (a) 5,000,000 (b) 1.25 × 1013
Self-test 1.2
1. (a) Circuit switching has a fixed path for transmission while packets in
packet switching follow different paths. (b) Circuit switching needs a path
set-up process while packet switching doesnÊt require this. (c) Fixed
bandwidth is dedicated to circuit switching as it needs a fixed path while
the bandwidth requirement of packet switching is dynamic, changing as
packets are sent.
2. First of all, packets arrive in sequence so that no additional process is

needed to re-order the packets. Second, the unique path of virtual circuit
switching is not solely owned by a single connection, hence bandwidth can
be used efficiently. Third, the headers of packets transmitted can be greatly
reduced as the packets are transmitted in a fixed path.
Self-test 1.3
1. 2 × 2 switching cell is a self-routing switch, that is, no central control is
required. Also, the routing speed of a 2 × 2 switching cell is much faster
than a 2 × 2 crossbar.
2. (a) Single crossbar: 82 = 64

(b) 3-stage: 2 × 42 + 8 × 22 = 64
(c) Multi-stage: 20 × 22 = 80
Findings: It is not necessarily true that a multi-stage switch always has
fewer crosspoints than a single switch.
Self-test 1.4
h g f e d c b a c e a g b h d f
a
Read
Write Read
Time
slot
counter 1
Data memory Address memory
Self-test 1.5
STS is less efficient than TST. STS requires one more TMS making it more
expensive to build such a network. Also, data entering the middle TSIs will
require synchronization. Therefore, TST is always preferable to STS.
Self-test 1.6
(a) Blocking (e.g. input A → output 3 and input B → output 4 are not allowed)
(b) SNB
(c) Blocking (e.g. input A → output 5, input B → output 6 and input E →

output 7 are not allowed)
(d) RNB
Suppose we want to set up these three connections: input A → output 3,
input B → output 1 and input C → output 2. Make the following
connections one by one.
Case 1:
(i) Connect input A to output 3 through switch I
(ii) Connect input C to output 2 through switch II
(iii) Then input B cannot connect to output 1
Inputs Outputs
A 1
B I 2
C 3
D 4
E 5
II
F 6
Case 2:
(i) Connect input A to output 3 through switch II
(ii) Connect input B to output 1 through switch I
(iii) Connect input C to output 2 through switch II
Inputs Outputs
A 1
B I 2
C 3
D 4
E 5
II
F 6
Self-test 1.7
Shared-buffer memory switches provide buffering for all outputs with a
relatively small memory size, but blocking can still occur.

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Unit X Switching

Switches are widely used in both circuit-switched and packet-switched networks.

The distributed mechanism greatly reduces the processing time in the

WHAT ARE SWITCHES?

Figure 1.1: Simplest telephone system

Figure 1.2: Fully connected network

In general, if there are n telephones and each of the n telephones is connected to

Pages 102ă106 (3rd edn)/118ă121 (4th edn) in Computer Networks. This

Figure 1.3: Centralized switch (star topology)

Table 1.1: Comparison of Number of Links Required

As discussed in the previous paragraphs, switching can be done using a

as the processor must be shared by more processes and so the performance

first level (level -1) switching office

second level (level -2) switching office

Figure 1.4: Two-level hierarchy

The idea behind multi-level switching offices is as follows. A small number of

The main problem of centralized switches, however, is reliability, because the

DIFFERENT SWITCHING TECHNIQUES

Pages 130ă134 (3rd edn)/146ă151 (4th edn) in Computer Networks. In this

Since it is impossible to have a direct connection between every pair of

Figure 1.5: Network used in circuit switching

User request Call request

Figure 1.6: Process of circuit switching

The whole packet switching process is depicted in Figure 1.7.

Figure 1.7: Process of packet switching

In circuit switching, once the path is established, information can be transmitted.

Table 1.2: A Comparison of Circuit Switching and Packet Switching

Item Circuit-switched Packet-switched

Connection-oriented services are those services in which users first establish a

Virtual Circuit Switching

Despite its simplicity, it is expensive to build a single crossbar switch. Thus, we

Figure 1.8: An M × N switch

Figure 1.9: N × N crossbar switch

Each input is connected to an output line through an AND gate which is

Figure 1.10: A crosspoint

A crossbar switch consists of an array of connected crosspoints. Each row in the

Figure 1.11(a) shows the physical implementation of a 4 × 4 crossbar switch.

A is connected to output Y; input C is connected to outputs X and Z; and inputs B

Figure 1.11: (a) A crossbar switch; (b) An example of a crossbar switch

Despite its simplicity, the crossbar switch has a number of limitations:

Instead of building a single N × N crossbar switch, we will build a switch using

Figure 1.12: Three stage space division switch

Let us compute the number of crosspoints needed for a three-stage switch.

total number of crosspoints = 2 kN + k(N/n)2 (9.1)

In summary, an increase in k increases the cost of a switch but decreases the

Figure 1.13(a): An 8 × 8 switch constructed by two 4 × 4 and eight 2 × 2 switches.

Figure 1.13(b): A 4 × 4 switch constructed by six 2 × 2 switches, n = 2, k = 2.

In Figure 1.13(a), an 8 × 8 switch can be constructed from two 4 × 4 switches and

The 2 × 2 switching cell appears in most switching networks. Such a switching

Note: In multistage switching networks, the lines (the physical connections)

1. Try to obtain the 8 × 8 switch in Figure 1.15 from Figure 1.13(a)

Figure 1.15: An 8 × 8 switching network constructed by 2 x 2 switching cells

Figure 1.16 (a): 2 × 1 concentrator

Figure 1.16(b): Output of 2 × 1 concentrator

Figure 1.16 (c): Implementation of 2 × 1 concentrator using 2 × 2 switching cell

Figure 1.17(a): 1 × 2 distributor

Figure 1.17(b): Output of 1 × 2 distributor

Figure 1.17(c): Implementation of 1 × 2 distributor using 2 × 2 switching cell

1. What are the advantages of using 2 × 2 switching cells instead of 2

In contrast to space-division switching where dedicated paths are used, time-

Suppose we have M low-speed digital signals and we would like to transmit

Figure 1.18: A 4:1 multiplexer

This MUX-DEMUX mechanism is known as Time-Division Multiplexing (TDM)