Patent ID: 7006514

Claim:
For use with a switch having a first number of input ports, a second number of output ports, each of the input ports having the second number of virtual output queues, and a third number of subschedulers, each of the third number of subschedulers being able to arbitrate matching to each of the second number of output ports, a method for scheduling the dispatch of cells or packets stored in the virtual output queues, the method comprising: a) for each of the virtual output queues, maintaining a first indicator for indicating whether the virtual output queue is storing a cell awaiting dispatch arbitration; b) for each of the subschedulers, maintaining a second indicator F(i,j,k) for indicating whether the subscheduler is available or reserved; and c) for each of the subschedulers, performing a matching operation, if it has been reserved, to match a cell buffered at a virtual output queue with its corresponding output port, wherein each of the subschedulers requires more than one cell time slot to generate a match from its matching operation, and wherein the subschedulers can collectively generate a match result for each output port in each cell time slot.