On multicast scheduling and routing in multistage Clos networks

Abstract

Multicast communication, which involves transmitting information from one node to multiple nodes, is a vital operation in both broadband integrated services digital networks (BISDN) and scalable parallel computers. Among different multicast switching networks, much work has been centered around the crossbar switches due to the simplicity of implementation. However, crossbars have the maximum number of crosspoints and implementation complexity among all switching fabrics. Multistage interconnect networks (MINs) such as Clos networks have attracted many attentions in recent years due to the non-blocking property as the crossbars, while at the same time possessing many advantages over crossbars. However, no multicast scheduling and routing algorithm have been applied to Clos network. This paper explores this aspect -we study some existing multicast scheduling and routing algorithms and apply them to Clos networks. Moreover, we propose two packet scheduling strategies to improve the system performance in terms of switch blocking probability and throughput, as shown by simulations.