A shared-memory ATM switch with multicast function

Abstract

To utilize a shared buffer efficiently, a shared buffer ATM switch with multicast function should not replicate a multicast cell at the arrival time, but should replicate it at the departure time. In such a switch, however, a multicast cell occupies the buffer for a long time, since it must stay there until the copy is sent out to all destinations. In this paper, we propose an ATM switch which can flexibly change the service mode. In the switch, if the buffer becomes congested, it serves the unicast cells prior to the multicast cells, which can reserve more vacant buffer spaces for the arriving cells. To do so, the switch has two dedicated address queues, one for the unicast cells and the other for the multicast cells. We evaluate cell loss characteristics under various load conditions via simulation. The switch is shown to provide a lower cell loss probability than the previously proposed switches. © 1999 Scripta Technica, Electron Comm Jpn Pt 1, 82(10): 1–9, 1999