Patent ID: 7209441

Claim:
A switch, comprising: one or more input side circuit interfaces; one or more output side circuit interfaces; and a core switch for outputting cells inputted thereto from said input side circuit interface or interfaces to said output side circuit interface or interfaces; each of said output side circuit interfaces feeding back a cell number accumulated for each virtual channel to a corresponding one of said input side circuit interfaces; each of said input side circuit interfaces shaping the rate of cells based on the feedback from a corresponding one of said output side circuit interfaces so that a peak cell rate total value of virtual channels which belong to a virtual path may not exceed a peak cell rate of the virtual path; each of said output side circuit interfaces controlling, based on the cell number accumulated for each virtual channel, so that the peak cell rate of the virtual path to which the virtual channels belong may not exceed the peak cell rate total value of the virtual channels which belong to the virtual path.