Patent ID: 6735203
Filing Date: 2004-05-11
Classification: H04L,H04Q

Abstract:
A switch arrangement for a packet-switched telecommunications network, which switch arrangement comprisesseveral input ports and several output ports, a switching fabric (SWN), an output unit (OUi) between each output port and the switching fabric, said output unit comprising an output buffer (OB) in which outbound packets are stored, each packet being stored in the output buffer of the corresponding output port after it has left the switching fabric, in accordance with which switch arrangement virtual connections are used for packet switching and serial numbers in packets belonging to each virtual connection are used to identify the relative order of the packets, each virtual connection having a unique connection identifier, and the output unit (OUi) maintains virtual connection-specific information on the serial number of the currently anticipated packet, and the packets belonging to a given virtual connection are ordered in the correct sequence in accordance with the serial numbers of the packets, wherein the serial number of a cell arriving at the output unit is compared to the serial number of the anticipated packet each packet is transferred directly to the output buffer when the serial number and the serial number of the anticipated packet are equal and to a separate re-sequencing memory (RST1, RST2) when the serial number of the packet and the serial number of the anticipated packet are not equal, the re-sequencing memory (RST1, RST2) being in a memory area that is defined at least on the basis of the serial number of the packet, and by means of the re-sequencing memory, packets are transferred to the output buffer by searching in each case packet data from that memory area of the re-sequencing memory which is defined at least on the basis of the anticipated serial number, whereby when the data of a given packet are found said packet is transferred to the output buffer, and whereby when a packet is transferred to the output buffer, the serial number of the anticipated packet is updated.