Patent ID: 7203202

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, a method for arbitrating the dispatch of cells or packets stored in the virtual output queues, the method comprising: a) for each input port, i) choosing a next non-empty virtual output queue, and ii) sending a request to an arbiter for the output corresponding to the chosen non-empty virtual output queue; and b) for each output port arbiter, i) selecting a next input port associated with a request sent to the arbiter, thereby defining an input-output match, and ii) indicating to each input port associated with a request sent to the arbiter, whether or not its request was granted, wherein, for each input-output match, if the virtual output queue of the input corresponding to the output has any remaining cells, the virtual output queue will request and win a next arbitration for the output port.