Patent ID: 7327748
Filing Date: 2008-02-05
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A switching device operatively connected to a transport medium, to a fabric switching network including a plurality of switch ports; the switching device comprising: (a) an aggregator comprising a demultiplexer and an external switch port operatively coupled to the transport medium; wherein the demultiplexer receives an ingress data stream comprising a plurality of protocol data units at the external switch port, and generates a plurality of intermediate data streams; (b) a plurality of intermediate ports operatively coupled to the aggregator for receiving the plurality of intermediate data streams; (c) a plurality of classification devices, operatively coupled to the plurality of intermediate ports and fabric switching network, for distributing each protocol data unit to the fabric switching network in the direction of an egress switch port, the classification decives comprising flow resolution logic, queue manager, and internal port; wherein each protocol data unit is distributed to the fabric switching network in the direction of an egress switch port, wherein at least one egress switch port is associated with an egress switching device including a plurality of intermediate ports; (d) wherein the queue manager causes the protocol data units received from the aggregator to be buffed in queue memory in a plurality of queues associated with an egress switch port, each queue being designated by a queue identification and further wherein the queue manager causes the protocol data units received from the aggregator to be buffered in queue memory in a plurality of queues associated with an egress switch port, each queue being designated by a queue identification, wherein the queue identifications that map to the intermediate ports of the egress switching device are given by the sum of a base queue identification and a queue identification offset, the offset given by (J modulo (j+m), where J is the total number of intermediate ports of the egress switching device, j is an index representing the jth intermediate ports and ranges from zero to J−1, and m is an index representing the mth classification device of the ingress switching device; (e) a memory device, operably connected to the queue manager, for retaining a look-up table that maps each queue identification to one of a plurality of egress switch ports, wherein the look-up table further includes at least one queue identification for each of the intermediate ports of the egress switching device.