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Lucent Technologies Inc.
Advance Product Brief
March 1997
ATM Switch Element (ASX)
LUC4AS01
S
LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES—PROPRIETARY
Use pursuant to Company Instructions
Description
(continued)
Overview
As shown in Figure 2, data for each port is clocked into
an input processor, passed to internal cell buffers, and
then routed to the appropriate output processor. The
queue processor, routing and arbitration circuit, and
backpressure feedback generation circuit controls the
movement of data into and out of the cell buffer mem-
ory. Control and status is communicated through a
16-bit asynchronous microprocessor interface.
Figure 3 shows an example 16 x 16 ATLANTA-based
switch fabric. The switch fabric will switch any of the
16 inputs to any of the 16 outputs. This is achieved by
staging devices and is referred to as a three-stage
switch fabric. The input stage is called the
(expander), and the output stage is called the
first stage
third
stage
companion ACE device. The ACE is functionally similar
to the ASX, but without the internal cell buffer (a hand-
shake protocol between the ASX and the ACE ensures
that the ACE need not store data). Conceptually, the
first-stage ASX expands the number of paths available
for switching the data, while the third stage concen-
trates data from the center stage. The ASX device sup-
ports 4:8, 5:8, and 6:8 expansion modes. The
expansion mode is configurable, depending on cost
and performance objectives, as well as the type of traf-
fic expected.
(concentrator). The center stage consists of the
A three-stage ASX/ACE based switch fabric can sup-
port up to 40 ports with 622 Mbits/s I/O rates. A 40-port
(25 Gbits/s total ATM throughput) fabric design would
use eight devices per stage in a 5:8 expansion mode.
5-4523R5
Figure 3. Example 16 x 16 @ 622 Mbits/s Switch Fabric (10 Gbits/s throughput)
ASX
MODULE #0
ASX
MODULE #1
ASX
MODULE #2
ASX
MODULE #3
ACE
MODULE #0
ACE
MODULE #1
ACE
MODULE #2
ASX
MODULE #0
ASX
MODULE #1
ASX
MODULE #2
ASX
MODULE #3
INPUT FROM
PORT CARDS
OUTPUT TO
PORT CARDS
FIRST-STAGE EXPANDER
THIRD-STAGE CONCENTRATOR
CENTER-STAGE CROSSBAR
ACE
MODULE #3