Patent ID: 7984194

Claim:
A physical, dynamically configurable switch for establishing connections between a plurality of devices, comprising: a plural number N of upstream ports; a plural number Y of downstream ports; a data switch fabric which is coupled to a group of upstream data signals emanating from each upstream port, said upstream data signals carrying data traffic to and from the devices under test coupled to the upstream ports, and which is coupled to a group of downstream data signals emanating from each downstream port, said downstream data signals carrying data traffic to and from host devices coupled to the downstream ports, and wherein the data switch fabric is dynamically configurable to establish a point-to-point electrical connection between the upstream data signals emanating from any upstream port and the downstream data signals emanating from any downstream port; a computing device coupled to the data switch fabric; and a network port coupled to the computing device, wherein, one or more of the upstream ports are each coupled to a different device under test (DUT), one or more of the downstream ports are each coupled to a different host device, and upon receiving a command over the network port to connect a particular DUT to a particular host device, the computing device dynamically configures the data switch fabric to connect the particular upstream port which is coupled to the particular DUT to the particular downstream port which is coupled to the particular host device.