LOSSLESS PACKET-SWITCHING WITH SMALL BUFFERS

The amount of buffering required by a packet switch is affected by the burstiness of the data stream. Even if the data stream is uniform at its source, the stream may become bursty as it passes through switches and is subject to contention with other data streams. For a network o f output buffered switches, if the incoming data streams are periodic, then the streams emerging from the switches after contention are also periodic. By imposing a period on the network, a packet switch can be designed that is lossless even when each input channel operates at it s maximum rate, provided that no output channel is overloaded. Such a switch requires relatively small buffers, smaller than the buffers req uired by a comparable switch with Poisson arrivals. It is also shown t hat the use of reserved time slots limits the buffering requirements o ver a sequence of connection establishments and terminations.