Patent ID: 6781986
Filing Date: 2004-08-24
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A method of operating a switching controller in a system comprised of a plurality of switching controllers, the method comprising:a) receiving from a predecessor switching controller an input schedule associating available destinations with available timeslots; b) receiving data packets; c) determining respective destinations of said data packets; d) determining, from said input schedule, whether any other switching controller in said system intends to transmit to any of the determined destinations of the data packets in a timeslot identified by a pre-defined transmit schedule associated with said any other switching controller; e) adjusting a pre-defined transmit schedule associated with said switching controller by producing a mapping value representing destinations to which said received data packets are to be transmitted, in response to the input schedule and determined destinations of received data packets; f) transmitting received data packets according to said mapping value such that at least some of said received data packets are transmitted to their destinations during available time slots identified by said input schedule as being unused by said any other switching controller in said system.