Patent ID: 6091729
Filing Date: 2000-07-18
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A switching fabric comprising:at least one switch;a plurality of line units;a cell bus comprising a plurality of conductors that electrically couple a switch to a plurality of line cards in said switching fabric, said cell bus for transmitting a cell of a predetermined size; and said switching fabric comprising a minimum bandwidth requirement that specifies delivery of a predetermined numbers of said cells per unit of time to said line cards via said cell bus, said switching fabric including a plurality of control parameters that control flow of said cells from said switch to said line cards; andcell bus interface for transmitting a cell bus frame on said cell bus, said cell bus frame comprising said cell and said control parameters, such that a maximum size of a cell bus frame permits transmission of said cell and said control parameters on said conductors to meet said minimum bandwidth requirement, whereby encapsulating said control parameters for said switching fabric into said cell bus frame reduces the number of conductors in said switching fabric.