Network operators need high-capacity router architectures that can offer scalability, provide
throughput guarantees, and maintain packet ordering. However, current centralized
crossbar-based architectures cannot scale to fast line rates and high port counts. On the
other hand, while load-balanced switch architectures that rely on two identical stages of
fixed configuration meshes appear to be an effective way to scale Internet routers to very
high capacities, they incur a large worst-case packet reordering that is at best quadratic to …