Patent ID: 7184444

Claim:
A system for the classification of data packets in a telecommunications system, comprising: an ingress edge unit operable to: receive a plurality of incoming data packets on a plurality of ingress edge ports; determine a set of classification parameters for each data packet; and communicate each data packet to an associated egress edge port; an egress edge unit having a plurality of egress edge ports linked to the plurality of ingress edge ports; and a controller operable to route each of the data packets to an associated egress edge ports from the ingress edge unit according to the classification parameters determined at the ingress edge unit, wherein the ingress edge unit further comprises a plurality of wave slot buffers for each ingress edge port, wherein the number of wave slot buffers for each ingress edge port corresponds to the number of associated egress edge ports, and wherein the ingress edge unit is further operable to buffer data packets arriving at the same ingress edge port with the same associated egress edge port at the same wave slot buffer.