An HIPPI Interconnection System

This paper deals with the proposed HIPPI standard, a connection-oriented communication standard for very high-speed interconnection systems connecting high-end computing systems. We consider the problems of managing connections and of configuring the interconnection system as either a single crossbar switch or as a clique of crossbar switches. Three connection management policies are introduced: a centralized policy, a broadcast policy, and a distributed policy. To compare these policies for different system configurations, we introduce a set of models and use them to evaluate a range of interconnection system configurations. The results of these models and a cost measure we develop allow us to compare the cost and performance of different configurations and alternative connection management policies. © 1993 IEEE