Patent ID: 7089346

Claim:
A method of operating a crossbar switch having a control logic, n input ports and m output ports, said input ports and said output ports being connected at crosspoints, said method comprising: routing information packets of p different priority levels from said n input ports to said m output ports; providing for each crosspoint a data buffer array for storing said information packets; providing for each crosspoint a CRosspoint Address (CRA) pool of buffers (CRA_ 0 , CRA_l, . . . ) within said control logic; temporarily storing address information related to said information packets in said CRA pool of buffers (CRA_ 0 , CRA_ 1 , . . . ), said address information indicating the address of information packets in said data buffer array; and monitoring or controlling the availability of said buffers (CRA_ 0 , CRA_ 1 , . . . ) in said CRA pool by an address data manager.