Patent ID: 7110397

Claim:
A cell signal switching apparatus for switching and transferring a cell signal among first and second nodes and a routing device, the nodes having each an interface for the cell signal, the routing device having an interface for the cell signal and determining an outgoing route for the cell signal according to destination data contained in the cell signal, the cell signal being made from a packet signal that contains the destination data, the cell signal switching apparatus comprising: a switch for making a connection path among the nodes and having a predetermined connection path fixedly or semi-fixedly connected to the routing device; a memory for caching source data from an input cell signal transmitted from the second node as outgoing route data; and a shortcut controller for forming a shortcut to transmit a cell signal input at the first node directly from the first node to the second node, without routing the cell signal via the predetermined connection path to and from the routing device, when outgoing route data contained in the cell signal input at the first node is equal to outgoing route data cached in the memory, and for caching into the memory source data contained in the input cell signal from the second node as outgoing route data.