Patent ID: 6335938
Filing Date: 2002-01-01
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A multiport data communication system for switching data packets between ports, the data communication system comprising:a plurality of receive ports for receiving data packets, including an expansion port for receiving data packets from another switching system, and a high-speed port for receiving data packets at a rate higher than data rates at regular receive ports, a decision making engine responsive to the received data packets for controlling transmission of the received data packets to at least one selected transmit port, the decision making engine including: a plurality of queuing devices corresponding to the plurality of the receive ports for queuing data blocks representing the data packets received by the corresponding receive ports, logic circuitry for receiving the data blocks from the plurality of queuing devices in successive time slots assigned to each of the plurality of receive ports to identify the at least one selected transmit port for each data packet, the successive time slots including expansion port time slots assigned to the expansion port and high-speed port time slots assigned to the high-speed port, and a scheduler interacting with the plurality of queuing devices for dynamically distributing the expansion port and high-speed port time slots between the expansion port and the high-speed port in accordance with relative data traffic at the expansion port and the high-speed port.