Patent ID: 6842422
Filing Date: 2005-01-11
Classification: H04Q

Abstract:
1. A switching system comprising: M receive interfaces each of which receive a data stream, where M is greater than or equal to 1 and is an integer, each receive interface implementing space division, at least a first receive interface of the M receive interfaces produces N stripes of the data stream, where N is greater than or equal to 2 and is an integer; N switch fabrics, each of which implement hybrid space/time division, each fabric implementing space division on the stripes the fabric receives and time division multiplexing on the data that arrives at the fabric, at least a first and second of the N switch fabrics each receive 1 of the N stripes of the data stream from the first of the M receive interfaces, each switch fabric connected to at least one of the M receive interfaces; and O transmit interfaces, where O is greater than or equal to 1 and is an integer, each transmit interface implementing space division, at least a first of the O transmit interfaces reconstructing the data stream from the stripes of the data stream received by the first and second of the N switch fabrics, each transmit interface connected to at least 2 of the N switch fabrics, the M receive interfaces are connected to the N switch fabrics and produce N stripes which are provided to the N switch fabrics, respectively, each of the M receive interfaces connected to each of the N switch fabrics, each of the O transmit interfaces are connected with each of the N switch fabrics and receive the N stripes from the N switch fabrics and reconstruct the respective data streams, there are N*M stripes provided between each of the receive interfaces and the switch fabrics, and each of the switch fabrics and the transmit interfaces, each fabric has M read and write queues associated with each receive interface and transmit interface, the first receive interface produces a parity stripe, and including an additional switch fabric (N+1) which receives the parity stripe, said additional switch fabric connected to the first receive interface so if 1 of the N+1 switch fabrics fail, the data stream can still be reconstructed with the parity stripe on the first transmit interface.