Patent ID: 6661788
Filing Date: 2003-12-09
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A network device comprising:a plurality of line cards, each line card including an input port and an output port; a fabric coupled to the plurality of line cards, the fabric allowing the simultaneous transfer of data among the plurality of input ports and output ports; and a fabric configuration manager coupled to the fabric and the plurality of line cards, the fabric configuration manager configured to receive one or more transmit requests from the input ports, each of the transmit requests identifying one of the input ports having a pending multicast cell that is ready to be transmitted to one or more output ports; search the output ports identified by each of the transmit request to find output ports that are available for grant, the search beginning with one of the input ports identified by a priority indicator; accept grants of output ports that were found to be available for grant by the searching; configure the fabric to form connections between input ports and output ports, each input port being connected to those output ports for which grants were accepted; and increment the priority indicator to identify a next input port that has a pending transmit request if grants have been accepted for all of the output ports identified by the transmit request, or if one of the output ports identified by the transmit request is asserting a back pressure signal.