Patent ID: 7940662

Claim:
A method for forwarding bursty data comprising: receiving a complete burst of data by an input locker unit comprising a first bursty interface and data lockers for storing input burst data; directing the complete burst of data to at least one of a plurality of processing queues; storing the complete burst of data in said at least one of the processing queues, wherein said at least one of the processing queues is for continuously receiving complete bursts of data using the first bursty interface so long as the processing queue is for accepting an additional burst of data, and in the event that the processing queue is not available to receive the complete burst of data then a queue unit generates a hold signal and the hold signal is used to throttle the arrival of data bursts; and directing the complete burst of data from the at least one processing queue to an output port when the output port is able to accept data for a particular logical port, wherein the output port comprises an output locker unit comprising a second bursty interface and data lockers for storing the directed data burst.