Patent ID: 6977935

Claim:
A scheduler for scheduling packet forwarding connections from N input ports to selected ones of N output ports at each time slot in a crosspoint switch, wherein N is a positive integer, comprising: an M×M matrix of scheduling modules, each of which schedules packet forwarding connections from a corresponding input group of input ports to selected ones of a corresponding output group of output ports based on reservation information of combinations of corresponding input and output ports at each time slot, wherein the N input ports are equally divided into M input groups and the N output ports are equally divided into M output groups; and a selector for selecting a sequential one of different module patterns covering the M×M matrix of scheduling modules, wherein each of the different module patterns determines a set of M scheduling modules to avoid coming into collision with each other and determines a sequence of transferring reservation information, wherein a scheduling module determined by a selected module pattern performs reservation of packet forwarding connections based on current reservation information of combinations of corresponding input and output ports and transfers updated reservation information according to the sequence determined by the selected module pattern.