Patent ID: 8005097

Claim:
A method of arbitration in a network on an integrated circuit, the network including a router unit that has a first input port, a second input port and an output port, the method comprising: receiving at least one first packet, including a first label, via the first input port, wherein the first label represents an index value that is indicative of a result of a previous arbitration for the first packet; receiving at least one second packet, including a second label, via the second input port, wherein the second label represents an index value that is indicative of a result of a previous arbitration for the second packet; and arbitrating between the first packet and the second packet using the first label and the second label and a previously selected packet, wherein said arbitration comprises the steps of: selecting the first packet if the first label is smaller than or equal to the second label and the first label is greater than a label of the packet selected in a previous clock cycle; selecting the second packet if the first label is greater than the second label and the second label is greater than the label of the packet selected in the previous clock cycle, otherwise, selecting from the first packet and second packet the packet with the lowest label and starting a new arbitration cycle; and relabeling the first and second labels corresponding to first and second packets based on the arbitration.