Patent ID: 6985486
Filing Date: 2006-01-10
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. An asynchronous transfer mode switch comprising: a set of m input ports to receive cells; a set of n buffer groups, each buffer group comprising a set of buffers, where n>m; an input-to-buffer switching module to switch a cell received at one of the m input ports to one of the n buffer groups, wherein the input-to-buffer switch module comprises a single stage m by n crossbar switch; a set of output ports; an output switching module to switch cells stored in the sets of buffers within the buffer groups to the set of output ports; and a buffer management module to maintain a pool of available buffers in which to store the cells, to allocate buffers when cells need to be stored, to release buffers when their stored data cells have been read by one or more of the output ports, and to generate a buffer overflow flag (BOF) if there are no buffers available.