Patent ID: 7277427
Filing Date: 2007-10-02
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of operating a router having N1 local signal input terminals connected to respective local signal sources which supply respective local input signals, a local output interface including M1 local signal output terminals, and an input expansion terminal, and including a routing means for routing a signal received at any one of the N1 local signal input terminals selectively to any one or more of the M1 local signal output terminals and for routing a signal received at the input expansion terminal selectively to any one or more of the M1 local signal output terminals, the method comprising: employing the routing means to supply a first input signal received at one of the N1 local input terminals to at least a first of the M1 local output terminals, employing the routing means to supply a second input signal received at the input expansion terminal to at least a second of the M1 local output terminals, and delaying the first input signal relative to the second input signal by a selectively adjustable amount to achieve a predetermined time relationship between the first and second input signals at the local output interface, and wherein the router includes a shared access memory having at least three pages and respective samples of each local input signal are sequentially written to one page of the memory during a first memory access period and read from another page of the memory during a second memory access period, and the delaying step comprises selecting address offset between the first memory access period and the second memory access period to delay the first input signal by at least one memory access period of the shared access memory.