Report Number: CS-TR-87-1185
Institution: Stanford University, Department of Computer Science
Title: Blazenet: A Photonic Implementable Wide-Area Network
Author: Haas, Z .
Author: Cheriton, D. R.
Date: December 1987
Abstract: High-performance wide-area networks are required to interconnect clusters of computers connected by local area and metropolitan area networks. Optical fiber technology provides long distance channels in the multi-gigabit per second range. The challenge is to provide switching nodes that handle these data rates with minimum delay, and at a reasonable cost. In this paper, we describe a packet switching network, christened Blazenet, that provides low delay and has minimal memory requirements. It can be extended to support multicast and priority delivery. Such a network can revolutionize the opportunities for distributed command and control, information and resources sharing, real-time conferencing, and wide-area parallel computation, to mention but a few applications.
http://i.stanford.edu/pub/cstr/reports/cs/tr/87/1185/CS-TR-87-1185.pdf