Patent ID: 7379470

Claim:
A data packet switching method in which a buffer is used for buffering input control information about incoming packets at a plurality of m input ports to be switched to a plurality of n output ports of a respective switching device, the method being enabled for concurrent read operation from at least a subtotal of output ports, the method comprising the steps of: a.) compressing said input control information from an indicator bit vector, an indicator bit representing either information data present or data absent on a respective one of said data input ports, b.) storing respective subsets of said compressed control information according to an output port indication evaluated from packet header information into a respective buffer storage provided per output port, and c.) evaluating the compressed control information from the total of buffer storages for switching the respective data packet to the desired switching device output port, said compressing step further comprising building an input port subgroup index for addressing respective subgroups of the total of input ports, each subgroup covering a predetermined plurality of input ports, and providing subgroup indication means for each subgroup for tracking at which input ports of a subgroup data is concurrently present.