Switch Simulations Based on Workload Pattern Generation and Smoothed Periodic Input

Simulation is crucial to performance evaluation of switches. Currently stochastic simulation is the predominant approach, which has two drawbacks: few workload patterns and long simulation times. In this paper, we propose a novel switch simulation method that is based on two techniques: exhaustive workload pattern generation and smoothed periodic input generation. The exhaustive workload pattern generation can produce a huge number of nonuniform workload patterns, which far exceeds the traditional few ones; conclusions based on such truly extensive simulations are much more convincing. The periodic input or cell arrival pattern outperforms the stochastic counterpart in terms of easy repetition and fast convergence of simulation; in particular, among periodic inputs, the smoothed periodic input is most favorable to switch scheduling, and hence switches performing poor with it probably performs worse under others. Combining these two techniques together can systematically identify lots of stuck states at which some switches show poor performances such as low throughput. Specifically, this method discovers that the throughput of iSLIP, FIRM and DRRM, each with one iteration, may be lower than 60% under certain nonuniform and smoothed periodic traffic pattern.

[1]  Balaji Prabhakar,et al.  The throughput of data switches with and without speedup , 2000, Proceedings IEEE INFOCOM 2000. Conference on Computer Communications. Nineteenth Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies (Cat. No.00CH37064).

[2]  Andrea Bianco,et al.  A framework for differential frame-based matching algorithms in input-queued switches , 2004, IEEE INFOCOM 2004.

[3]  Samuel P. Morgan,et al.  Input Versus Output Queueing on a Space-Division Packet Switch , 1987, IEEE Trans. Commun..

[4]  Panayotis Antoniadis,et al.  FIRM: a class of distributed scheduling algorithms for high-speed ATM switches with multiple input queues , 2000, Proceedings IEEE INFOCOM 2000. Conference on Computer Communications. Nineteenth Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies (Cat. No.00CH37064).

[5]  Mounir Hamdi,et al.  Practical scheduling algorithms for high-performance packet switches , 2003, IEEE International Conference on Communications, 2003. ICC '03..

[6]  R. Rojas-Cessa,et al.  CIXB-1: combined input-one-cell-crosspoint buffered switch , 2001, 2001 IEEE Workshop on High Performance Switching and Routing (IEEE Cat. No.01TH8552).

[7]  H. Jonathan Chao,et al.  Saturn: a terabit packet switch using dual round-robin , 2000, Globecom '00 - IEEE. Global Telecommunications Conference. Conference Record (Cat. No.00CH37137).

[8]  Nick McKeown,et al.  A Starvation-free Algorithm For Achieving 100% Throughput in an Input- Queued Switch , 1999 .

[9]  Cheng-Shang Chang,et al.  Load balanced Birkhoff-von Neumann switches, part II: multi-stage buffering , 2002, Comput. Commun..

[10]  Cheng-Shang Chang,et al.  Load balanced Birkhoff-von Neumann switches, part I: one-stage buffering , 2002, Computer Communications.

[11]  Eiji Oki,et al.  CIXOB-k: combined input-crosspoint-output buffered packet switch , 2001, GLOBECOM'01. IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference (Cat. No.01CH37270).

[12]  S.-Y.R. Li.  Theory of periodic contention and its application to packet switching , 1988, IEEE INFOCOM '88,Seventh Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communcations Societies. Networks: Evolution or Revolution?.

[13]  Marco Ajmone Marsan,et al.  On the Behavior of Input Queuing Switch Architectures , 1999, Eur. Trans. Telecommun..

[14]  Nick McKeown,et al.  A Quantitative Comparison of Iterative Scheduling Algorithms for Input-Queued Switches , 1998, Comput. Networks.

[15]  Pravin Varaiya,et al.  Scheduling cells in an input-queued switch , 1993 .

[16]  H. Jonathan Chao,et al.  On the performance of a dual round-robin switch , 2001, Proceedings IEEE INFOCOM 2001. Conference on Computer Communications. Twentieth Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Society (Cat. No.01CH37213).

[17]  Wojciech Kabacinski,et al.  Performance evaluation of the multiple output queueing switch under different traffic patterns , 2005, GLOBECOM '05. IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference, 2005..

[18]  Marco Ajmone Marsan,et al.  Local scheduling policies in networks of packet switches with input queues , 2003, IEEE INFOCOM 2003. Twenty-second Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies (IEEE Cat. No.03CH37428).

[19]  Paolo Giaccone,et al.  An implementable parallel scheduler for input-queued switches , 2001, HOT 9 Interconnects. Symposium on High Performance Interconnects.

[20]  Wen Gao,et al.  Smooth switching problem in buffered crossbar switches , 2005, SIGMETRICS '05.

[21]  Nick McKeown,et al.  A quantitative comparison of scheduling algorithms for input-queued switches , 1997 .

[22]  Marco Ajmone Marsan,et al.  On the stability of local scheduling policies in networks of packet switches with input queues , 2003, IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun..

[23]  Isaac Keslassy,et al.  The Load-Balanced Router , 2004 .