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Scalable and Practical Nonblocking Switching Networks

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Abstract

Large-scale strictly nonblocking (SNB) and wide-sense nonblocking (WSNB) networks may be infeasible due to their high cost. In contrast, rearrangeable nonblocking (RNB) networks are more scalable because of their much lower cost. However, RNB networks are not suitable for circuit switching. In this paper, the concept of virtual nonblockingness is introduced. It is shown that a virtual nonblocking (VNB) network functions like an SNB or WSNB network, but it is constructed with the cost of an RNB network. The results indicate that for large-scale circuit switching applications, it is only needed to build VNB networks.

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Correspondence to Si-Qing Zheng.

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Si-Qing Zheng received the B.S. degree from Jilin University, China, in 1973. He worked as a research engineer at High Energy Physics Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. From 1976 to 1978, he was a member of the united development team of DJS-140 computer system, which was a project under direct supervision of the Chinese government. S. Q. Zheng was a graduate student at the Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences from 1978 to 1980, and he went to US to pursue graduate studies in 1980. He received the M.S. degree in computer science from University of Texas at Dallas in 1982, and Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1987. After being on the faculty of Louisiana State University for eleven years since 1987, he joined University of Texas at Dallas as a full professor of computer science, computer engineering, and telecommunications engineering. He served as associate chairman of the Department of Computer Science and the head of Telecommunications Engineering Division of the Engineering School of University of Texas at Dallas. Dr. Zheng has a wide range of research interests, which include algorithms, combinatorial optimization, computer architectures, real-time/embedded systems, networks, parallel and distributed processing, telecommunications, VLSI design, and hardware/software codesign. He has published over 200 research articles in these areas. Dr. Zheng was invited to participate in industrial research and development as a visiting scientist or a consultant by several high-tech companies, and he holds numerous patents. Dr. Zheng’s work addresses both theoretical aspects and practical issues. Dr. Zheng is active professionally. He served as program committee chairman of numerous international conferences, committee member of more than 70 international conferences, and editor of several professional journals.

Ashwin Gumaste received the Ph.D. degree from the University of Texas at Dallas and is currently with Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. He was previously with Fujitsu Laboratories (USA) Inc as a member of research staff in the Photonics Networking Laboratory. Prior to that he worked in Fujitsu Network Communications R&D and prior to that with Cisco Systems under the Optical Networking Group. He has over thirty pending U.S. and EU patents, and in 1991 was awarded the National Talent Search Scholarship (NTSE) in India. His research interests include optical networking and uncertainty equilibriums. He proposed an architecture to implement optical burst transport and dynamic lightpath provisioning, called light-trails, and also proposed the light-frame framework, a conceptual model for packet mode optical communication. The light-trail concept is well cited and currently under industrial development. It has also attracted attention as a paper session in conferences. He has authored three books in broadband networks called DWDM Network Designs and Engineering Solutions, and First Mile Access Networks and Enabling Technologies (for Pearson Education/Cisco Press) and Broadband Services: User Needs, Business Models and Technologies for John Wiley.

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Zheng, SQ., Gumaste, A. Scalable and Practical Nonblocking Switching Networks. J Comput Sci Technol 21, 466–475 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11390-006-0466-1

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