Patent ID: 7203193
Filing Date: 2007-04-10
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A packet switching system comprising: a plurality of ingress units; a plurality of egress units; a switch fabric coupled to the plurality of ingress units and egress units, characterized in that the switch fabric receives packets from the plurality of ingress units and generates notification messages in response, each notification message being ordered based on the ingress unit transmitting the associated packet, further characterized in that the notification message is transmitted to one or more egress units according to the order assigned to the message based on the associated ingress unit; the switch fabric including a plurality of buffer untis receiving and storing packets transmitted by the plurality of ingress units, each buffer unit including a notification queue for each of the plurality of egress units; and a set of first pointers for retrieving notifications stored in notification queues of a first buffer unit are initialized to a first start entry and a set of second pointers for retrieving notifications stored in notifications queues of a second buffer unit are initialized to a second start entry.