Message-Based Response Routing with Selcuk Networks

Computer-to-computer communication in a very large net, parallel processing, and content-based in retrieval associative memories all can be viewed in a broader context as the broadcast of a "to-whom-it-may-concern" type message and the subsequent routing of the response messages to the broadcast source. Simplicity and economies in logic and memory can be obtained if the routing does not require site information and is as decentralized as possible. We propose a procedure for such routing in a large net of modules of limited logic and memory, with connectivity primarily to near neighbors with one-way channels. The procedure is based on the Selcuk principle which maintains that in properly constructed networks routing can be achieved with each module basing its switching decision only on the identity of its input channel(s) upon which the broadcast message first arrived—a strictly local information. One-way channel connectivity emerges as advantageous because it requires much less memory and logic than two-way arrangements, while achieving nearly the same efficiency in properly constructed nets.