Patent ID: 7492760

Claim:
A time division multiplexing switch comprising: a plurality of ingress ports, each of the ingress ports in the plurality for synchronously receiving data grains at fixed time intervals, the data grains ordered as grain groups; a plurality of memory egress self selection (MESS) egress ports, for receiving the data grains from the plurality of ingress ports, and transmitting the data grains in a predetermined order; and a grain aggregator, operatively connected to the plurality of ingress ports, for aggregating the data grains received by each of the ingress ports during a single timeslot into an aggregate of data grains in an N grain wide channel, where N is the number of ingress ports, and for providing the aggregate of data grains to the plurality of MESS egress ports simultaneously; each MESS egress port from the plurality having a data grain selector for selecting from the aggregate of data grains only data grains that the MESS egress port will transmit, prior to storing the selected grains for transmission by the MESS egress port; said data grain selector being able to select up to N data grains during a single timeslot in accordance with at least one predetermined criterion being based on the ingress port associated with the received data grains and a position of a grain in its respective grain group.