Patent ID: 7106729

Claim:
A method for switching data lines, the method comprising: establishing a configuration for a switch element, the configuration comprising a plurality of connections between data lines in a first plurality of data lines and data lines in a second plurality of data lines, the switch element including a set of ingress devices, a set of center stage devices, and a set of egress devices, each connection including at least one of the ingress devices, one of the center stage devices and one of the egress devices, wherein multiple connections are extended across each center stage device; logically modeling the switch element and mapping a multi-stage logical model that represents the components of the switch element in multiple stages, comprising an input sorter, an input router, a center stage device, an output router, and an output sorter, to the switch element; detecting a switching event; selecting a portion of the plurality of connections, including one or more connections across at least one of the center stage devices; and rearranging only the selected connections across at least one of the center stage devices in response to the switching event using the logical model.