The switching net.work is an important. classic research area in t.ele communication and comput.er net.works. It.s import.ancc st.ems from both theory and practice. In fact, some open problems, such as Benes conjec ture on shuffle-exchange networks and Chung-Rmis conjecture on multi rate rearrangeability, still attract many researchers and the further de velopment in optical networks requires advanced technology in optical switching networks. In 1997, we had a workshop in switching networks held in NSF Sci ence and Technology Center in Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science...