In a multicast switching network, fanout is defined to be the number of outputs that need to be connected to an input. It is well known that fanout sets the complexity of a multicast switch. In the classic three-stage Clos architecture. fanout is reduced to be the number of output switches that need to be reached from an input. Again this number has a strong bearing on the complexity of the entire switch. In real applications, like teleconferencing, three-way call, etc., most multicast connections have small fanouts. But we must design the switch so that it can handle the worst case condition....[ Read more ]

In a multicast switching network, fanout is defined to be the number of outputs that need to be connected to an input. It is well known that fanout sets the complexity of a multicast switch. In the classic three-stage Clos architecture. fanout is reduced to be the number of output switches that need to be reached from an input. Again this number has a strong bearing on the complexity of the entire switch. In real applications, like teleconferencing, three-way call, etc., most multicast connections have small fanouts. But we must design the switch so that it can handle the worst case condition.

In first part this thesis, the development of a new architecture for multicast circuit switching network is presented. A fanout reduction is used in the new architecture to improve the efficiency of the Clos network. The new scheme reduces the complexity of the switch, and still maintain the general one-to-all multicast capability inside the switch. We demonstrate that even the better approach available for building a multicast network can be improved by this technique. The price we pay, however, is an increase in path setup time for connections with large fanouts.

In the second part of the thesis, multicast packet switch architectures are studied. A fanout reduction scheme, similar to the scheme in the first part, for the multicast packet switch architecture is evaluated. This architecture required little extra cost to support multicast call, and the procedure of adding and deleting call parties is simple.

The fanout reduction approach offers a new way of designing multicast interconnection networks.