FAULT-TOLERANT SCHEME FOR MULTISTAGE INTERCONNECTION NETWORKS.

A scheme is proposed to enhance the fault-tolerance of multistage interconnection networks which only have a unique path between each input/output pair (e. g. , omega networks, baseline networks, etc. ). It is done by creating multiple paths between each input/output pair of the network through extra links between switching elements in the same stage. This scheme requires a simple routing algorithm and allows a network to become more robust as its size increases. A reliability analysis provides a quantitative measure of the improvement of the networks fault-tolerance capability. In terms of reliability, a network implemented with this scheme is more cost-effective than a regular one.