Performance evaluation of switching in local area networks

In this paper we study the performance of switching in local area networks (LAN). The transfer rates required by today's applications, such as multimedia, are beyond the typical bandwidth of conventional LANs. The use of switches in LANs overcomes the bandwidth limitation by supporting multiple concurrent communications. The overall performance including throughput and network reliability are improved. We study the performance of different switch architectures using simulation and analytical techniques. We show that parallel switches work very well with high traffic load and at light-to-medium load they give close to optimal performance. They provide much better overall performance than traditional switches.