Batcher banyan network with cell copy preparation stages for multicast switching

Multicast services will occupy a large portion of the B-ISDN traffic. However, even if one multicast service is watched by many subscribers, it occupies only one channel on the trunkline as multicast traffic is not dominant on the trunkline. Therefore, it is a waste to use non-blocking multicast ATM switching networks for transit switching systems because the hardware of a non-blocking multicast ATM switching network is large. This paper proposes to apply the Batcher banyan network, which is point-to-point non-blocking, to multicast transit switching systems. The blocking rate decreases substantially by placing cell copy preparation stages in front of the Batcher network.