Switch fabric architecture analysis for a scalable bi-directionally reconfigurable IP router

This paper provides an in-depth analysis using six basic router functional requirements, a primary switch fabrics (SFs) selection criterion, and a semi-quantitative compliance scoring scheme for 10 SFs. The goal is to select candidates that can serve a hardware (HW)-wise scalable and bi-directionally reconfigurable Internet Protocol (IP) router. HW scalability and bi-directional HW reconfigurability for an IP router denote respectively its ability to (1) expand according to network traffic capacity growth; and (2) be functionally converted to perform in two conceptual directions on-demand: "downward" as "edge", or "upward" as "hub" or "backbone" router according to the layer of the internet services provider's network hierarchy it is targeted to serve at the moment. Overall result points to Hypercube, Multistage Interconnection Network (MIN), and 3-Dimensional Torus Mesh as potential candidates. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.