Patent ID: 7948975

Claim:
A communication apparatus, comprising: at least one input port and multiple output ports; at least one Serial-to-Parallel (S/P) converter, which is operative to receive from the input port an input data stream that is to be cross-connected to a destination output port, to extract a clock signal from the input data stream and to separate the input data stream into multiple sub-streams; a plurality of parallel switching planes, each comprising: at least one input for receiving a respective sub-stream from the at least one S/P converter; multiple outputs, each output associated with a respective one of the multiple output ports; and switching circuitry, which is configured to switch the respective sub-stream to the output that is associated with the destination output port, wherein one of the switching planes is configured to cross-connect the extracted clock signal to the output that is associated with the destination output port; and at least one Parallel-to-Serial (P/S) converter, which is coupled to the outputs of the switching planes so as to combine, using the cross-connected clock signal, the multiple sub-streams switched by the switching circuitry into a combined output data stream at the destination output port.