Patent ID: 7486687
Filing Date: 2009-02-03
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of transmitting packets from devices to output ports, the method comprising: providing a plurality of requests to transmit data packets from a plurality of devices, wherein each request corresponds to one of a plurality of input queues of one of the devices and includes an output port identifier for transmitting data packets to one of a plurality of output ports; receiving the requests in parallel at respective inputs of a plurality of sequential allocation stages, wherein an output of each stage is connected to an input of a subsequent stage; all of the allocation stages performing a matching based on the requests to generate partial matching information, wherein the partial matching information is a matching of less than all the devices to a corresponding one of the output ports; transferring, by each of the allocation stages, respective partial matching information to a subsequent allocation stage in the plurality of sequential allocation stages; excluding, by a sequential subset of the allocation stages, at least a first sequential allocation stage, and the subset performing a matching based on the requests and the respective partial matching information to generate complete matching information, wherein the complete matching information is a matching of all the devices to a corresponding one of the output ports; and granting permission to an input queue of each of the devices for a corresponding one of the output ports using the completed matching information from a last stage of the plurality of sequential allocation stages, wherein each matching is based on the same devices and output ports.