Patent ID: 8107468

Claim:
A non-blocking multicast switching system, comprising: three stages of an input stage, a middle stage, and an output stage, said respective stages comprising a plurality of switches capable of multicasting, wherein each switch of the input stage comprises at least n 1 input ports, each switch of the output stage comprises at least n 2 output ports, each switch of the input stage comprises at least one line connected to each of all switches of the middle stage, each switch of the middle stage comprises at least one line connected to each of all switches of the output stage, a signal of said each line is multiplexed k times at maximum, where k≧2, and in cases where number of switches of the output stage is r 2 and number of switches of the middle stage is m, (A1) is established: m > min 1 ≤ x ≤ min ⁢ { n 2 - 1 , r 2 } ⁢ { ⌊ ( n 1 - 1 k ) ⁢ x ⌋ + ( n 2 - 1 ) ⁢ r 2 1 x } . ( A ⁢ ⁢ 1 )