Patent ID: 8325749

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving, from an ingress schedule module and at an egress schedule module, a request to schedule transmission of a group of cells from an ingress queue through a multi-stage switch fabric of a multi-stage switch, the request including a sequence value representing an order within the group of cells within the ingress queue, the ingress queue being associated with an ingress stage of the multi-stage switch fabric, the ingress schedule module being associated with the ingress stage of the multi-stage switch fabric, the egress schedule module being associated with an egress stage of the multi-stage switch fabric; defining, in response to the request, a response including the sequence value associated with the group of cells when an egress port associated with the egress stage of the multi- stage switch fabric is available to transmit the group of cells from the multi-stage switch; and sending the response from the egress schedule module to the ingress schedule module.