Technical reports

Cut-through network switches: architecture, design and implementation

Noa Zilberman, Łukasz Dudziak, Matthew Jadczak, Thomas Parks, Alessandro Rietmann, Vadim Safronov, Daniel Zuo

November 2018, 18 pages

DOI: 10.48456/tr-928

Abstract

Cut-through switches are increasingly used within data-centres and high-performance networked systems. Despite their popularity, little is known of the architecture of cut-through switches used in today’s networks. In this paper we introduce three different cut-through switch architectures, designed over the NetFPGA platform. Beyond exploring architectural and design considerations, we compare and contrast the different architectures, providing insights into real-world switch design. Last, we provide an evaluation of one successfully implemented cut-through switch design, providing constant switching latency regardless of packet size and cross-traffic, without compromising throughput.

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BibTeX record

@TechReport{UCAM-CL-TR-928,
  author =	 {Zilberman, Noa and Dudziak, {\L}ukasz and Jadczak, Matthew
          	  and Parks, Thomas and Rietmann, Alessandro and Safronov,
          	  Vadim and Zuo, Daniel},
  title = 	 {{Cut-through network switches: architecture, design and
         	   implementation}},
  year = 	 2018,
  month = 	 nov,
  url = 	 {https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/techreports/UCAM-CL-TR-928.pdf},
  institution =  {University of Cambridge, Computer Laboratory},
  doi = 	 {10.48456/tr-928},
  number = 	 {UCAM-CL-TR-928}
}