Principles and Practices of Interconnection Networks

CHAPTER 6

Non-Blocking Networks

Until this point, we have focused on packet-switched networks, but for this chapter,

we shift our attention to circuit-switched networks. In circuit-switched networks,

connections between a particular source and destination are first set up, then held

as data flows continuously through the connection, and then finally torn down.

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Historically, non-blocking, circuit-switched networks were first associated with the

telephone system. A call placed from one person to another represented a single con-

nection request. For the call to go through, an unused path through the network had

to be found and then allocated for that call. ...