Patent ID: 7200107
Filing Date: 2007-04-03
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method for preventing cell loss during switch-over in a redundant switch fabric comprising the steps of: receiving an inbound cell in an ingress buffer; dispatching copies of said inbound cell stored in said ingress buffer to a plurality of switch fabric elements receiving said cell copies in said plurality of switch fabric elements; forwarding an outbound cell from a designated active switch fabric element to an egress buffer; receiving a redesignation of the active switch fabric element during a switch over; forwarding an outbound cell from the redesignated active fabric switch element to the egress buffer; dispatching an outbound cell from the egress buffer; determining whether there is a gap or an overlap in the contents of the egress buffer relative to a cell stream arriving from a newly designated active switch fabric element; if there is an overlap in the egress buffer, adjusting a read pointer for the egress buffer to accommodate the overlap; if there is a gap in the egress buffer, dispatching a cell from the ingress buffer so as to send copies of the cell to the plurality of switch fabric elements again to prevent the loss of the cell; and wherein the step of dispatching the outbound from the egress buffer further comprises dispatching the cell received from the egress buffer after it is adjusted for any gap or overlap.