Patent ID: 7339935

Claim:
An ATM switch comprising: a plurality of stages, wherein said stages are connected and each of said stages includes a plurality of basic switches, each of said basic switches in a first stage including a cell distribution part for determining a route of each cell on a cell-by-cell basis for distributing cells such that loads of routes within an ATM switch are equalized; wherein the cell distribution part includes a cell distribution history table that indicates a number of cells transferred within a fixed time period for each of routes for each of destination groups that correspond to basic switches in a last stage, and wherein, when a cell arrives, said cell distribution part determines, on a cell-by-cell basis, a destination group of said cell from which said cell is output, and said cell distribution part refers to a field corresponding to said destination group in the cell distribution history table so as to determine a route, over which said cell is to be transferred, which has transferred a minimum number of cells within a fixed time period among routes for said destination group in said cell distribution history table.