An integrated services fast packet/fast circuit switch

A new switching architecture called the fast packet/fast circuit (FPC) switch, which uses fast packet and fast circuit switching to support integrated voice-data-video, multicasting, and virtual networking services, is described. The switch employs autonomous processing units with local memory to store switching information and is built around a modified Banyan network with bit-parallel lines linking its node processors. The system is synchronous and time is slotted with the slots organized into frames. Fixed rate video and other real-time periodic traffic are handled via circuit switching, whereas voice, data, datagrams, and other bursty traffic are packet switched. Multicasting is realized by allocating dedicated bandwidth to real-time periodic sources and virtual bandwidth to all bursty sources. Virtual networking is achieved by putting into place a circuit-switched subnetwork over which its users communicate via fast packet and/or fast circuit switching. Analytic models to determine the switch's performance characteristics are developed and illustrated via numerical examples.<>