Network planning and tuning in switch-based LANs

Switch-based networks have received much attention in local area networks (LANs) due to their higher network bandwidth and greater interconnect scalability than shared-medium networks. While arbitrary topologies are allowed to provide the needed flexibility and scalability, the design of an appropriate network topology is a challenging issue. In this paper, we discuss design considerations and propose efficient methods for network planning and tuning in switch-based LANs. The idea of block design is applied to initial topology design. For network tuning, a systematic method is proposed to reduce message latency and increase network throughput. Simulations are conducted to demonstrate the performance improvement by applying our method.