In this paper, we present the design of a large self-routing multicast ATM
switch. The switch consists of a sorting network followed by a 3-stage rout
ing network. We first present a simple design of a large sorting network bu
ilt using small sized shared memory that can be used as a building block fo
r a large sorting network. Small sized shared memory is also used in the 3-
stage routing network making the switch modular and easy to implement using
current VLSI technology. As the network uses shared memory modules, multic
asting functionality is easily built into the network. The performance of t
he proposed network is compared with an equivalent completely shared memory
switch using computer simulations under bursty traffic model. The results
show that the proposed network has better performance in terms of cell loss
ratio than the completely shared memory switch under moderate to heavy tra
ffic load (0.6 less than or equal to effective offered load less than or eq
ual to 1.2). Furthermore, multicast cell delays are drastically improved.