Patent ID: 7522624

Claim:
A switching unit comprising: a switch core fabric, an output termination module (Om, 1≦m≦M) coupled to said switch core fabric, an input termination module (In, 1≦n≦N) coupled to said switch core fabric, said output termination module comprising: an egress queue (EQm_CoSc, 1≦c≦C) adapted to backlog data units belonging to a class of service (CoSc), an egress scheduler coupled to said egress queue, and adapted to schedule data units from said egress queue towards an output termination port, said input termination module comprising: an ingress queue adapted to backlog data units belonging to said class of service and bound to said output termination module, said switching unit further comprising, as forming part of said input termination module, of said switch core fabric and of said output termination module, at least point-to-point transmission means adapted to convey data units from at least said ingress queue to at least said egress queue, said at least point-to-point transmission means being considered, with respect to said ingress queue and to said egress queue, as a virtual ingress-to-egress pipe connecting said ingress queue to said egress queue, wherein said output termination module further comprises a measurement means coupled to said egress scheduler, and adapted to determine whether said egress queue is scheduled below expectation during a first pre-determined period of time by comparing an actual scheduled data rate to an expected scheduled data rate which is based at least on a service share allotted to a respective egress queue, and said switching unit further comprises a flow controller coupled to said measurement means, which flow controller increases bandwidth of the virtual ingress-to-egress pipe during a second pre-determined period of time subsequent to the first pre-determined period of time, if said egress queue is determined to be scheduled below expectation during said first pre-determined period of time.