Patent ID: 8897133

Claim:
A multi-stage switch fabric (SF) comprising: a fabric card chassis (FCC) comprising, a stage-1 switch element (S1), a first buffer area bound to S1, a stage-2 switch element (S2), and a stage-3 switch element (S3), a second buffer area bound to S3, wherein the S3 corresponds to the S1, and the S2 is coupled to the S1 and S3 respectively; a signal cable; a line card chassis (LCC) comprising a line card (LC) and an interface coupled to the LC, the interface configured to receive packets from the LC and switch the received packets to the first buffer area via a first path of the signal cable, the interface configured to receive packets from the second buffer area via a second path of the signal cable and switch the received packets to the LC; and wherein the interface comprises a stage-0 switch element (S0) configured to: switch packets from one LC in the LCC to another LC in the LCC, and switch packets from the LC in the LCC to the S1 in the FCC, and switch packets received from the S3 in the FCC to the LC in the LCC.