COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

REVIEW

CIRCUIT SWITCHING
The N2 Problem
 For N users to be fully connected directly
 Requires N(N – 1)/2 connections
 Requires too much space for cables
 Inefficient & costly since connections not always on
1

N = 1000
N(N – 1)/2 = 499500
N 2

4 3
 Circuit Switching
 Patchcord panel switch invented in 1877
 Operators connect users on demand
 Establish circuit to allow electrical current to flow
from inlet to outlet
 Only N connections required to central office
1
N

N–1

2
3
Manual Switching
Switch Network
 A switched network consists of a series of inter-
linked nodes, called switches.
 Switches are hardware and/or software devices
capable of creating temporary connections
between two or more devices linked to the
switch but not to each other.
 Methods of switching
 Circuit switching, packet switching, and message
switching

5
Circuit Switch
 Circuit switching creates a direct physical
connection between two devices such as
phones or computers.
 We can use switches to reduce the number and
length of links.

6
A Circuit Switch
 A circuit switch is a device with n inputs and m
outputs that creates a temporary connection
between an input link and an output link.
 The number of inputs does not have to match
the number of outputs.

7
A Folded Switch
 An n-by-n folded switch can connect n lines in full-duplex
mode. For example, it can connect n telephones in such
a way that each phone can be connected to every other
phone.
 Circuit switching uses space-division switch [paths in the
circuit are separated from each other spatially] or time-
division switch.

8
Circuit Switch Types

 Space-Division switches
 Provide separate physical connection between
inputs and outputs
 Crossbar switches
 Multistage switches
 Time-Division switches
 Time-slot interchange technique
 Time-space-time switches
 Hybrids combine Time & Space switching
Space Division Switch
 Paths in the circuit are separated from each other spatially.
 Crossbar Switch
 Crossbar switch connects n inputs to m outputs in a grid,
using electronic micro-switches (transistors) at each cross-
point.
 Limitation is the number of cross-points required

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Multistage Switch
 Multistage switch combines crossbar switches in several
stages.
 Design of a multistage switch depends on the number of
stages and the number of switches required (or desired) in
each stage.
 Normally, the middle stages have fewer switches than do the
first and last stages.

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Multiple Switching Paths
 Multiple paths are available in multistage switches.
 Blocking refers to times when two inputs are looking for
the same output. The output port is blocked.

12
 Multistage Space Switch
 Large switch built from multiple stages of small switches
 The n inputs to a first-stage switch share k paths through intermediate
crossbar switches
 Larger k (more intermediate switches) means more paths to output
 In 1950s, Clos asked, “How many intermediate switches required to
make switch nonblocking?”
2(N/n)nk + k (N/n)2 crosspoints
nk N/n  N/n kn
1 1
1
nk kn
2 2 N
N N/n  N/n
nk 2 kn
inputs outputs
3 3

…
…
…

nk kn
N/n N/n
N/n  N/n
k
Clos Non-Blocking Condition:
k=2n-1

 Request connection from last input to input switch

j to last output in output switch m
 Worst Case: All other inputs have seized top n-1
middle switches AND all other outputs have
seized next n-1 middle switches
 If k=2n-1, there is another path left to connect
desired input to desired output
 Clos Non-Blocking Condition:
k=2n-1

nxk N/n x N/n kxn

1 1
1
…

…
n-1
busy N/n x N/n
Desired nxk n-1 kxn Desired
j m
input output
n-1
N/n x N/n
n+1 busy
…

…
# internal links =
N/n x N/n 2x # external links
2n-2
nxk kxn
N/n
Free path N/n2n-1
x N/n Free path N/n
Minimum Complexity Clos Switch

C(n) = number of crosspoints in Clos switch

= 2Nk + k( N )2 = 2N(2n – 1)+(2n – 1)( N )2

n n
Differentiate with respect to n:

0 = dC = 4N – 2N + 2N ≈ 4N – 2N ==> n ≈ √ N
2 2 2

dn n2 n3 n2 2

The minimized number of crosspoints is then:

N2 N 1/2
C* = (2N + )(2( ) – 1) ≈ 4N √ 2N = 4 √ 2N1.5
N/2 2
This is lower than N2 for large N
 Example: Clos Switch Design
 Circa 2002, Mindspeed offered a Crossbar
chip with the following specs:
 144 inputs x 144 outputs, 3.125
Gbps/line 8x16 144144 16x8
1 1

1152 outputs
 Aggregate Crossbar chip throughput: 1
450 Gbps 8x16 16x8
2 2
144x144

1152 inputs
 Clos Nonblocking Design for 1152x1152 8x16 2 16x8
switch 3 3

…
 N=1152, n=8, k=16

…
…
 N/n=144 8x16 switches in first stage
8x16 16x8
 16 144x144 in centre stage
144 N/n
 144 16x8 in third stage 144x144
16
 Aggregate Throughput: 3.6 Tbps!

 Note: the 144x144 crossbar can be

partitioned into multiple smaller switches
Time Division Switch
 Time-division switching uses time-division multiplexing to
achieve switching. Two methods used are:
 Time-slot interchange (TSI) changes the order of the slots based on the
desired connection.
 TDM bus
Time-Slot Interchange (TSI)
 TSI consists of random access memory (RAM) with several
memory locations. The size of each location is the same as
the size of a single time slot.
 The number of locations is the same as the number of inputs.
 The RAM fills up with incoming data from time slots in the
order received. Slots are then sent out in an order based on
the decisions of a control unit.

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 Time-Slot Interchange (TSI)
Switching
 Write bytes from arriving TDM stream into memory
 Read bytes in permuted order into outgoing TDM stream
 Max # slots = 125 msec / (2 x memory cycle time)

1 a
Read slots
2 b
according to
3 connection
d c … b a permutation b a … d c


24 23 2 1 24 23 2 1
Write
22
slots in
order of 23 c
Incoming arrival Outgoing
TDM 24 d TDM
stream stream

Time-slot interchange
TDM Bus
 Input and output lines are connected to a high-speed bus through input and
output gates (microswitches)
 Each input gate is closed during one of the four slots.
 During the same time slot, only one output gate is also closed. This pair of
gates allows a burst of data to be transferred from one specific input line to
one specific output line using the bus.
 The control unit opens and closes the gates according to switching need.

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Comparison of SDM and TDM
 SDM
 Advantage:
 Instantaneous.
 Disadvantage:
 Number of cross points required.
 TDM
 Advantage:
 No cross points.
 Disadvantage:
 Processing delay.
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TST Switch
 Combine Space division and time division switching.
 This results in switches that are optimized both physically (the
number of crosspoints) and temporally (the amount of delay).
 Various types are: time-space-time (TST), time-space-space-
time (TSST), space-time-time-space (STTS), etc.

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Time-Space-Time Hybrid Switch
 Use TSI in first & third stage; Use crossbar in middle
 Replace n input x k output space switch by TSI switch that takes n-slot
input frame and switches it to k-slot output frame

nxk N/n x N/n kxn

1 1
1

nxk
N 2
Input TDM Output TDM
inputs
nxk frame with frame with k
n slots 1
3 slots
2


…

n … 2 1 k … 2 1

nxk n
N/n

Time-slot interchange
Flow of time slots between
switches
First slot First slot
nk N/n  N/n kn
1 1 1

nk kn
2
2 N/n  N/n
2

…
…
…

nk kn
N/n
N/n N/n  N/n
kth slot k kth slot

 Only one space switch active in each time slot

Time-Share the Crossbar Switch
TSI stage Space stage TSI stage

TDM nxk TDM TDM kxn

n slots 1 k slots k slots 1

n slots nxk kxn

N 2 N/n x N/n 2 N
inputs Time-shared outputs
n slots nxk space switch kxn
3 3
…

…
n slots nxk kxn
N/n N/n

 Interconnection pattern of space switch is reconfigured

every time slot
 Very compact design: fewer lines because of TDM &
less space because of time-shared crossbar
 Example: A→3, B→4, C→1, D→3
(a)
A C
B
A
3-stage
Space
Switch
C D
D B

(b)
B2 A2 B1 A1 B1 A1 C1 A1 A1 C1
2x3 3x2
1 1
Equivalent
TST Switch

D1 B1 B1 D1
D2 C2 D1 C1
2x3
D1 C1 3x2
2 2
Example: T-S-T Switch Design
For N = 960
 Single stage space switch ~ 1 million crosspoints
 T-S-T
 Let n = 120 N/n = 8 TSIs
 k = 2n – 1 = 239 for non-blocking
 Pick k = 240 time slots
 Need 8x8 time-multiplexed space switch

For N = 96,000
 T-S-T
 Let n = 120 k = 239
 N / n = 800
 Need 800x800 space switch