Patent ID: 7519059

Claim:
A method of forwarding data in a network switch fabric, said method comprising: receiving a data packet at a first port of the fabric; reading a first portion of the data packet, the first portion being less than a full packet length, of the packet, to determine corresponding packet information; determining a class of service for the data packet based on the first portion of the data packet; storing the first portion of the data packet in a packer memory of the first port in a logical FIFO and according to the class of service; storing subsequent portions of the data packet in the packer memory of the first port to accumulate at least one cell; writing the cell into a packet pool memory to facilitate transmission; updating a link list array, the link list array comprising pointers correlating the packet with the at least one cell and a counter representing a total number of cells stored in the packet pool memory that correspond to the packet.