Patent ID: 6426940
Filing Date: 2002-07-30
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
An asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switch having a starting stage consisting of a plurality of output switches, and a plurality of primary stages, each of said plurality of primary stages consisting of a plurality of multiplexing switch units, each of said multiplexing switch units consisting of a multiplexing apparatus and a copier, each of said plurality of primary stages receiving a plurality of data cells from a stage positioned just ahead of each of said plurality of primary stages, a last stage receiving data cells externally from said ATM switch, said last stage being leftmost stage of said plurality of primary stages, a first stage being rightmost stage of said plurality of primary stages, said starting stage receiving outputs of said first stage, said copier receiving outputs of said multiplexing apparatus and copying said outputs and outputting said received outputs and said copied outputs, said multiplexing apparatus comprising:a generating unit, consisting of a plurality of extracting parts, receiving a plurality of data cells from among said data cells, generating control signals corresponding to said plurality of data cells, and outputting said data cells and said control signals, said generating of said control signals being in accordance with routing tags in said received data cells; a shared FIFO buffer, said shared FIFO buffer having a plurality of buffer units; a buffer selecting unit, receiving said data cells and said control signals from said generating unit, selecting buffer units from said plurality of buffer units in accordance with said control signals, and transmitting said data cells to said selected buffer units; an outputting unit transmitting data cells stored in said selected buffer units; a cell counting unit receiving first counting data from said buffer selecting unit, receiving second counting data from said outputting unit, counting a quantity of data cells stored in said plurality of buffer units by using said first and second counting data transmitted from said buffer selecting unit and outputting unit, and transmitting a counting signal corresponding to said quantity of data cells to said outputting unit; a back-pressure signal generating unit receiving said counting signal from said cell counting unit, and generating back-pressure signals corresponding to said counting signal; and a fault detecting unit receiving said control signals from said generating unit, and detecting faults from among said plurality of data cells, wherein said plurality of data cells received by said generating unit corresponds to a number of data cells equal to a first integer, said plurality of data cells transmitted by said outputting unit corresponds to a number of data cells equal to a second integer, said second integer being equal to a number resulting from said first integer being divided by two.