Patent ID: 6741552
Filing Date: 2004-05-25
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A cell switch for switching digital data cells between a multiplicity of input ports and a multiplicity of output ports, comprising a multiplicity of switching elements coupled by bidirectional links to form at least a partial D-dimensional generalized hypercube, such that each of the bidirectional links traverses exactly one dimension of the hypercube, at least some of the switching elements being coupled to at least one of an input port and an output port, each of the switching elements being associated with a controller implementing a regularly-recurring cell exchange cycle during which:a plurality of digital data cells are sent from at least one switching element to a plurality of adjoining switching elements linked thereto by corresponding ones of the bidirectional links; and a plurality of digital data cells are sent to said at least one switching element from said plurality of switching elements linked thereto by said corresponding ones of the bidirectional links, wherein each digital data cell is exchanged between switching elements only once during a single regularly-recurring cell exchange cycle, the switching element comprising a Source Sink Element (SSE) providing input and output port functions and an SCS router providing cell switching function, wherein there is a multiplicity of paths between any two switching elements, and a switching algorithm of the switch allows a cell to travel any one of the paths between two switching elements, wherein each switching element comprises a plurality of input links, each input link being one of an injection link used to inject cells into the cell switch and a hypercube link used to transport cells within the cell switch, wherein a switching element receives a cell on each of its input links each cell exchange cycle, and wherein each switching element determines a priority ordering of cells which determines the order cells are selected for routing.