A Non-Blocking System-Area Network with Multiple Direct Channels

Three new versions of a non-blocking self-routing network with direct channels are developed. Packet conflicts are detected and resolved at the network input. Conflict-blocked packets are retransmitted by sources with minimal delay. End-to-end feedback loops are added to the network to detect packet conflicts quickly. The presence of feedback loops allows for arbitrary traffic without packet loss. The networks are designed in 1-, 2-, 4-, and 8-stage modifications with channel scalability from several hundred to many millions, and their speed achieved on permutational traffic is estimated. In practice, the proposed networks are oriented to system area networks with the transmission of routing information in packet headers using control routing information in each stage. The proposed networks are implemented in an extended circuit basis (switches, multiplexers, and demultiplexers). The performance characteristics of these networks are presented and comparatively assessed. The developed networks are novel as well as have unique structure and performance characteristics.