In practice, switched Local Area Networks (LANs) designs, has, largely been based on heuristics; in many cases, no design is carried out; only network installation (network cabling and nodes placements). This often leads to LANs that are sluggish (large delays), and, that fail to satisfy the network users in terms of speed, when, a users computer is in a communication session with other computers or host machines that are attached to the LAN or with switching devices that connect the LAN to wide area networks (WANs). Therefore, the need for deterministic guarantees on delays has led to the...