Switch-Borne Router for High Performance Packet Forwarding of Connectionless Traffic in ATM Networks

The most viable support for connectionless traffic over ATM uses connectionless servers that forward packets based on the destination address in each packet. To achieve high data rates with small latency and predictable cell delay variation, this forwarding process must be carried out efficiently. This paper proposes a functional architecture, called switch-borne router (SBR), which incorporates connectionless routing and forwarding into the ATM switching architecture. With SBR, it is possible -- using an efficient cut-through technique -- for a connectionless service to forward packets at near-ATM speeds with a negligible amount of added latency per packet (or burst). Router buffering, which adds complexity, can be substantially reduced through a simple traffic shaping technique. Furthermore, SBR requires only minor changes to the switch architecture, and allows for seamless integration of connection-oriented and connectionless traffic. 1 Introduction Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM..