Patent ID: 8873546

Claim:
A switch element comprising: a plurality of megaports, each megaport uniquely identified by a unique megaport address identifier for network addressing; and a global crossbar configured to allow communication between the megaports; wherein each megaport includes: a plurality of operational ports, each operational port identified by a unique operational port address identifier; a local crossbar for communication between the plurality of operational ports; and a shared logic module configured to provide common control of the plurality of operational ports within a megaport to allow operational ports to share resource of a single megaport to route network packets therebetween; wherein the operational ports include: a receive segment for receiving an incoming network packet and temporarily storing the network packet at a packet storage location; a tag writer module configured to create a tag for the network packet received at the receive segment, the tag including information about the network packet and a packet storage location; wherein the tag created by the tag writer is stored at a tag storage location of a transmit segment that is used to transmit the received network packet; and a tag arbiter for selecting a request from among a plurality of requests stored at the tag storage location, wherein the network packet identified by the request is pulled from the packet storage location and transmitted to a network packet destination.