MODULAR MULTICAST ATM SWITCHING ARCHITECTURE

A modular multicast packet switching architecture is proposed for the B-ISDN/ATM. In this switching architecture, we use the abilities of a broadcast bus suitable for multicasting services. Instead of using the concatenation of a copying network and a routing network, we use the same switching network to perform both copying and routing of multicas t packets. This multicast switch architecture treats unicast and multi cast packets in the same way; the delay time for these two kinds of pa ckets has the same characteristics for the affective load in the switc hing. Through the modularity of this switching architecture, it is eas y to dimension the switching system. We also include a mathematical an alysis of this architecture.