Patent ID: 7996604

Claim:
A method of identifying data bursts that are temporarily stored in a memory for communicating between nodes, the method comprising: reading a data class indication from each data burst header for each data burst that is to be stored in the memory; wherein the data bursts are received at a plurality of input ports of a switch; providing class queues for storing data pointers; wherein each of the class queues is associated with a respective data class indication; wherein each data pointer references a respective data burst stored in the memory; storing data pointers in a manner in the class queues to indicate a time the data pointers were received according to class indication; wherein the storing of data pointers includes, for each time period in a succession of time periods, performing the steps including: in response to receiving one or more data bursts during a time period of the succession of time periods at one or more of the input ports, determining respective class indications of the one or more data bursts; and for each of the one or more data bursts, storing a respective data pointer in a location that corresponds to the time period in the class queue associated with the class indication of the data burst; and in response to not receiving a data burst during the time period at one or more of the input ports, for each class indication for which no data burst was received, storing a null pointer in a location that corresponds to the time period in the class queue associated with the class indication for which no data burst was received.