Patent ID: 7525995

Claim:
A method of switching, via a plurality of links of an interconnect network, a plurality of packets, which are received by a plurality of ingress controllers, to a plurality of output ports of a plurality of egress controllers, the method comprising: segmenting said plurality of packets into a plurality of packet fragments; generating a plurality of cells, each including one of said packet fragments, a global time stamp, an ingress identification, a destination identification, and a fragment number; and sending said plurality of cells to said plurality of output ports via said links based on a prioritization scheme which is based on said global time stamp, said ingress identification, and said fragment number, wherein sending said plurality of cells based on said prioritization scheme comprises: prioritizing a first cell over a second cell having a lagging time stamp compared to a time stamp of said first cell; prioritizing said first cell over a third cell having the same time stamp as said first cell and an ingress identification of lower priority compared to an ingress identification of said first cell; and prioritizing said first cell over a fourth cell having the same time stamp and ingress identification as said first cell and having a lagging fragment number compared to a fragment number of said first cell.