Patent ID: 7039045

Claim:
A method for connecting data lines, the method comprising: (a) connecting a switch element, and providing a five-stage logical model that represents the components of the switch element in five stages comprising an input sorter, an input router, a center stage device, an output router, and an output sorter, to a first set of data lines and to a second set of data lines; (b) identifying a first plurality of time slots on an ingress stage of the switch element; (c) identifying a second plurality of time slots on an egress stage of the switch element; (d) assigning each time slot on the ingress stage to a corresponding ingress edge on a center stage of the switch element; (e) assigning each time slot on the egress stage to a corresponding egress edge on the center stage of the switch element; (f) assigning each time slot on the ingress stage to a corresponding time slot on the egress stage; and (g) sending communications from the first set of data lines to the second set of data lines by assigning time slots of the communications individually from the first plurality of time slots through corresponding ingress and egress edges of the center stage and to corresponding time slots in the second plurality of time slots.