Sliding-banyan network performance analysis

The sliding-banyan (SE) network employs an interleaved multistage shuffle-exchange topology, implemented with a three-dimensional free-space interconnection architecture that connects a multichip backplane to itself. Surface-normal emitters and detectors, which compose the stages' input-output, are spatially multiplexed within the same chip location, along with electronic control and switching resources. A simple deflection self-routing scheme minimizes internal contention, providing efficient use of snitching and interconnection resources. The blocking performance of the SE is quantified through simulations based on realistic nonuniform traffic patterns. Results show that the SE architecture requires significantly fewer resources than other self-routing banyan-based networks. The multistage-switching and interconnection-resource requirements are close to the theoretical minimum for nonblocking networks, and the SB's distributed self-routing control resources grow only approximately linearly with the number of nodes, providing good scalability. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America.