Distributed Dynamic Control of Circuit-Switched Banyan Networks

Circuit-switched Banyan interconnection networks can be built from simple switching elements that do not have logical processing or buffering capabilities. This paper describes a distributed technique for dynamic control of such a network, so that circuits can be established in response to the changing needs of a parallel application. Control information is interleaved with data, thus avoiding the need for a separate network to process control messages. These techniques are particularly useful in optical networks, where it may be desirable to provide all-optical circuit-switched connections.