Patent ID: 7170908

Claim:
A source selection system in a communication switch having active and redundant data flow paths, said source selection system, comprising: a plurality of corresponding datasources operating independently and outputting in parallel the same data subject to data transmission errors that may be different for each of said datasources; one of said corresponding datasources being selected as an active datasource, wherein the data output thereby is used as active data for onward transmission over the active data flow path within said switch, and the other of said corresponding datasources serving as a redundant datasource wherein the data output thereby acts as substitute data for use in the event of inadequate operational performance of said active datasource; a validation module associated with said plurality of corresponding datasources adapted to monitor each of said datasources for transmission errors and provide information relating to said transmission errors; an assessment module receiving said information from said validation module and assessing operational performance of each of said datasources based on said information to determine which of said data sources has better operational performance; and a source selector responsive to instructions from said assessment module to change the datasource selected as said active datasource to a new one of said corresponding datasources when said assessment module determines that said new one of said datasources has a better operational performance than said one of said datasources.