Distributed multicast contention resolution using content addressable FIFOs
Kenneth J. Schultz, P. Glenn Gulak · 2002
Space switches suffer from external blocking because of output port contention. The authors review contention resolution methods used to avoid external blocking, and choose a solution based on ring reservation, resulting in an elegant and efficient mechanism requiring only nearest-neighbor communications. In addition to external blocking, space switches suffer from head-of-line (HOL) blocking, and the authors propose a means of contention resolution that alleviates HOL blocking without arbitration time overhead. This method makes use of a novel content addressable FIFO, and its design and operation are described in detail. Multiple latency priorities are supported, and the authors introduce an efficient means of supporting multicasts, using call-splitting in their single-cycle windowing environment.>