Virtual output queueing

Virtual output queueing (VOQ) is the technique used in input-queued switches where rather than keeping all traffic in a single queue, separate queues are maintained for each possible output location. It addresses a common problem known as head-of-line blocking.^[1]

Description

In VOQ each input port maintains a separate queue for each output port. It has been shown that VOQ can achieve 100% throughput performance with an effective scheduling algorithm. This scheduling algorithm should be able to provide a high speed mapping of packets from inputs to outputs on a cycle-to-cycle basis. The VOQ mechanism provides throughput at a much higher rate than the crossbar switches without it.

There are many algorithms for design and implementation of fast VOQ. Nick McKeown and a group at Stanford University for example published a design in 1997.^[2]

Quality of service and priority are extensions found in literature of the same time.^[3]

VOQ scheduling is often referred to as "arbitration" (resolving the concurrent access wishes), whereas the ordering of packets ("packet scheduling") is an additional task^[4] following the VOQ arbitration.

Example

For example, consider a 2×2 crossbar switch.

     --------
a--->|-\--/-|--->--0
     |  \/  |
     |  /\  |
b--->| /--\ |---->-1
     --------

Let's say that data "0" arriving at port A or B will go to output port 0. Similarly data "1" arriving at port A or B will go to output port 1. So the number of combinations that can happen at the input port A, B are: 00, 01, 10, and 11.

If data at the input is "00", this means both the input data at time t are contending for the same output port 0 and the output port 0 can't route both the data at the same time as it can handle only one unit data per time slot. So in this case the efficiency of the 2×2 switch (without VOQ) is 0.5.

Same is the case for data "11" in which the efficiency is 0.5. Similarly for data "01" and "10" the efficiency is 1 as there is no contention as both the data go to both output ports 0 and 1.

Since it is a 2×2 switch, the probability that any one of out of these four combinations of data will occur = 0.25. So the efficiency of this 2×2 switch is:

  (0.25 * 0.5) --> for data 00
+ (0.25 * 0.5) --> for data 11
+ (0.25 * 1.0) --> for data 01
+ (0.25 * 1.0) --> for data 10
---------------
 = 0.75 (75%)

So we see that the 2×2 crossbar switch is working at 75% efficiency to give out data from input to output. As n increases, for n×n switches this causes further degradation in efficiency. VOQ overcomes this problem by introducing extra buffers (queues) per port.

Let's revisit the same scenario with 2×2 switch with VOQ support.

     --------
a--->|-\--/-|-OO-->--0
     |  \/  |
     |  /\  |
b--->| /--\ |-OO--->-1
     --------

Here each output port has n buffers per port to accommodate a given maximum number of simultaneous data packets that each port can receive at a time. This buffering mechanism removes the bottleneck per port on peak time and distributes it over a period of time increasing the switch performance.

References

1. Goudreau, Mark W.; Kolliopoulos, Stavros G.; Rao, Satish B. (2000). "Scheduling algorithms for input-queued switches: Randomized techniques and experimental evaluation". Proceedings of IEEE INFOCOM. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.42.5126. doi:10.1109/INFCOM.2000.832562. ISBN 0-7803-5880-5.
2. McKeown, Nick; Izzard, Martin; Mekkittikul, Adisak; Ellersick, Bill; Horowitz, Mark (1997). "Tiny Tera: a packet switch core" (PDF). IEEE Micro. 17: 26–33. doi:10.1109/40.566194.
3. Schoenen, Rainer; Post, Guido; Sander, Gerald (1999). "Prioritized arbitration for input-queued switches with 100% throughput". Proceedings of ATM Workshop. doi:10.1109/ATM.1999.786865. ISBN 4-88552-164-5.
4. Schoenen, Rainer; Hying, Roman (1999). "Distributed cell scheduling algorithms for virtual-output-queued switches". Proceedings of IEEE Globacom. doi:10.1109/GLOCOM.1999.829963. ISBN 0-7803-5796-5.