1. technology and computing
2. hardware
3. computer networking
4. router

Routers in a Network
• Overview of Generic Router Architecture
. . .
. . .
Router Design
• Input-Queued Switches (Routers)
• IP Address Look-up Algorithms
• Packet Classification Algorithms
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Sample Routers and Switches
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High Capacity Router
• Cisco CRS-1
Cisco 12416 Router
up to 160 Gb/s throughput
up to 10 Gb/s ports
– up to 46 Tb/s thruput
• two rack types
– 640 Gb/s thruput
– up to 16 line cards
• up to 40 Gb/s each
– up to 72 racks
Juniper Networks T640 Router
up to 160 Gb/s throughput
up to 10 Gb/s ports
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3Com 4950
24 port gigabit
Ethernet switch
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Generic Router Architecture
Components of a Basic Router
• Input/Output Interfaces (II,
OI)
II
IPP
CP
OPP
Data Hdr
– synchronize signals
– determine required OI or OIs
from routing table
• Output Port Processor (OPP)
– queue outgoing cells
• shared bus interconnects IPPs
and OPPs
Header Processing
Lookup
IP Address
Update
Header
1
1
Header Processing
Lookup
IP Address
Update
Header
2
2
NQueue
times line
Packet
rate
Buffer
Memory
Address
Table
Control
Queue
Packet
Buffer
Memory
Address
Table
Data Hdr
. . .
• Input Port Processor (IPP)
OI
output
queue
routing
table
. . .
– convert between optical signals
and electronic signals
– extract timing from received
signals
– encode (decode) data for
transmission
N times line rate
Processor (CP)
» configures routing tables
» coordinates end-to-end channel setup
together with neighboring routers
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Point-to-Point Switch (3rd Generation)
Data Hdr
Header Processing
Lookup
IP Address
Address
Table
Update
Header
N
N
Queue
Packet
Buffer
Memory
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Buffer Placement: Output Port Queuing
Switched Backplane
Line
Card
CPU
Card
Line
Card
Local
Buffer
Memory
Routing
Table
Local
Buffer
Memory
Fwding
Table
Fwding
Table
MAC
MAC
• Buffering when the aggregate arrival rate exceeds the
output line speed
• Memory must operate at very high speed
Typically < 50Gbps
aggregate capacity
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Switching Speed-up Needed
Data Hdr
Header Processing
Lookup
IP Address
Update
Header
1
1
Header Processing
Lookup
IP Address
Queue
Packet
Link 1, ingress
Buffer
Memory
Address
Table
Data Hdr
Simple model of output queued
switch
Update
Header
2
2
Link rate, R
Link 2, ingress
R
Buffer
Memory
Link 3, ingress
N times line rate
Data Hdr
Header Processing
Lookup
IP Address
Address
Table
Update
Header
N
N
Link rate, R
NQueue
times line
Packet
rate
Address
Table
Link 1, egress
R
Queue
Packet
Link 4, ingress
R
Buffer
Memory
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Characteristics of an output
queued (OQ) switch
Link 2, egress
R
Link 3, egress
R
Link 4, egress
R
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Buffer Placement: Input Port Queuing
• Fabric slower than input ports combined
– So, queuing may occur at input queues
• Head-of-the-Line (HOL) blocking
– Queued packet at the front of the queue prevents
others in queue from moving forward
• arriving packets immediately written into output queue,
without intermediate buffering
• flow of packets to one output does not affect flow to
another output
• OQ switch is work conserving: output line always busy when
there is a packet in switch for it
• OQ switch has highest throughput, lowest average delay
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Simple model of input queued
switch
Link 1, ingress
Link 1, egress
R
Link 2
Link 1
R1
Link 2, ingress
R
• Packet at the head of an input queue cannot be
transferred, thus blocking the following
packets (or cells – packets of fixed size)
Cannot be transferred because
is blocked by red packet
Link 2, egress
R
Link 3
Head-of-line Blocking
R
Input 1
Link 3, ingress
R
Link 4
Link 4, ingress
Output 1
Link 3, egress
Input 2
R
Link 4, egress
R
Input 3
R
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Characteristics of an input
queued (IQ) switch
Output 2
Cannot be
transferred
because output
buffer full
Output 3
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Buffer Placement: Design Trade-offs
• Output queues
– Pro: work-conserving, so maximizes throughput
– Con: memory must operate at speed N*R
• Input queues
– Pro: memory can operate at speed R
– Con: head-of-line blocking for access to output
• arriving packets written into input queue
• only one packet can be sent to output link at a
time
• head-of-line blocking
• IQ switch cannot keep output links fully utilized
BISS 2010: FAN
• Work-conserving: output line is always busy when
there is a packet in the switch for it
• Head-of-line blocking: head packet in a FIFO
cannot be transmitted, forcing others to wait
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Model (cont’d)
What is capacity of IQ: Model
[optional: Karol et al Globecom’86]
• At+1 - no. of new HOL packets in input ports with
destination O
• Xt+1 = (Xt-1)+ + At+1
•Large input-queued switch with
– single FIFO at each input
– packet destinations i.i.d. (independently, identically
distributed), uniform across outputs
– HoL blocked packets not flushed
• where
•throughput analysis
– saturated switch (i.e., always arrival at each input queue)
– focus on one output port O
– Xt - number of packets that did not get to O at end of
slot t
– Dt- number balls removed from inputs port at the end of t
– Dt is switch thruput
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D 
k
D −k
P( At +1 = k ) =  t (1 / N ) (1 − 1 / N ) t
k 
• E(Dt) = ρN where ρ is output throughput
• for large N, binomial distribution can be
approximated by Poisson distribution,
P( At = k ) ≈
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ρk
k!
e−ρ
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A Router with Input Queues
Model (cont’d)
Head of Line Blocking
E ( A2 ) + EA − 2( EA) 2
EX =
2(1 − EA)
where EA = ρ, E(A2) = ρ + ρ2
therefore
EX = 1, therefore
2ρ − ρ 2
2 (1 − ρ )
Delay
EX =
2ρ − ρ 2
1=
2(1 − ρ )
0%
and ρ =2-√2≈ 58.6%
BISS 2010: FAN
20%
40%
60%
Load
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80%
100%
2 − 2 ≈ 58%
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Solution to Avoid Head-of-line Blocking
• How to improve capacity without increasing switching fabric
speed ?
• Maintain at each input N virtual queues, i.e., one per output
– use non-FIFO scheduler, matching input/output
Input 1
Output 1
Output 2
Input 2
Virtual Output Queueing
• assume fixed length
packets
1
• each input manages
separate queue per output
• at each time, matching
scheduler finds best
possible packets from
inputs to said to outputs
• maximum-weight matching
1
.
.
.
matching
scheduler
N
N
.
.
.
Output 3
Input 3
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Scheduling Algorithms
Matching
19
3
4
• Lij(t): no. of packets at input i for output j at t
• bipartite graph (V1∪V2,E), E∈V1×V2
1
– V1,V2 inputs, outputs
– (i,j) ∈ E iff Lij(t) > 0
• matching: subset of E such that input
no two edges are adjacent
22
21
18
7
output
19
19
1
18
7
Practical
Maximal Matchings
Not stable
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Max Size Matching
Not stable
Max Wt Matching
Stable
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Switch Algorithms
Better Matching Algorithms
19
•
19
–
–
–
18
1
•
7
Maximal matching
Max Size Matching
Not stable
Max Wt Matching
Not stable
Need simple algorithms that perform well
Stable, low backlogs
Better performance
efficient packet processing packets at line speeds
high throughput
low latencies/backlogs
Randomized algorithms with linear complexity available
– Tassiulas’ Randomized Algorithm
– LAURA
– SERENA
Use both randomization, history, problem structure and arrival
information
Easier to implement
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BISS 2010: FAN
Combined Input-Output Queued
(CIOQ) Routers
• Both input and output
interfaces store packets
• Advantages
input interface
OQ Emulation
output interface
– Easy to built
• Utilization 1 can be achieved
with limited input/output
speedup (<= 2)
Backplane
• Disadvantages
– Harder to design algorithms
• Two congestion points
• Need to design flow control
RO
26
C
• Each input and output maintains a preference list
• Input preference list: list of cells at that input
ordered in the inverse order of their arrival
• Output preference list: list of all input cells to be
forwarded to that output ordered by the times
they would be served in an Output Queueing
schedule
• Use Gale Shapely Algorithm (GSA) to match inputs
to outputs
– Outputs initiate the matching
• Can emulate all work-conserving schedulers
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Output Queue Emulation
using CIOQ (with Speed-up)
Example
Stable Matching
-- Gale Shapely Algorithm (GSA)
While there are unmatched output that are not
rejected by all input do
Each unmatched output requests its most
preferred packet from an input that has
not rejected it yet
Each input grants the request to the output
with the most preferred cell
• A stable matching exists for every set of
preference lists
• Complexity: worst-case O(N2)
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