Patent ID: 6111856
Filing Date: 2000-08-29
Classification: H04L,H04Q

Abstract:
A switching element (1) comprising a plurality of input ports and at least one output port, a spacial switching mechanism (6), and a cell memory (2) in which cells are stored, said cells being classifiable according to at least one given characteristic which can only take on a finite number of values, characterized in that said switching element (1) includes:means to access the cells contained in said cell memory (2) selectively according to said characteristic,a probability memory (4) associating a probability p.sub.i with each possible value i of said characteristic,a server (3) which chooses a cell to be transmitted from among the cells contained in said cell memory (2) according to the probabilities (p.sub.i) contained in the probability memory (4) and the presence or absence of a cell in the cell memory (2) for each value (i) of said characteristic.