Patent ID: 7983273

Claim:
A multi-processor scheduling apparatus for facilitating establishment of a connection in a switch fabric having a plurality of input ports and a plurality of output ports in response to receiving connection requests, said plurality of input ports being divided into non-intersecting input-port groups, said apparatus comprising multiple schedulers individually associated with non-intersecting control domains, each of said control domains being bounded by at least one of: a sub-frame of a repetitive time frame divided into non-intersecting sub-frames; an input-port group within said plurality of input ports; and an output-port group within said plurality of output ports; each scheduler employing at least one processor and accommodates a connection request within a control domain with which said each scheduler is associated; wherein each control domain is defined by an input-port group from among said non-intersecting input-port groups, said plurality of output ports, and a sub-frame from among said non-intersecting sub-frames, and each of said schedulers is cyclically paired with said each control domain during said time-frame.