Patent ID: 6992984

Claim:
A multi-stage, multi-dimensional, credit-based, adaptive flow control switch comprising: a plurality of first stage port processors, each one of the plurality of first stage port processors having an integrator block for receiving a token bit and updating a grant credit in response to receiving the token bit; a plurality of second stage port processors connected to the plurality of first stage port processors for receiving data packets from the plurality of first stage port processors, each one of the plurality of second stage port processors having a statistics block coupled to a corresponding integrator block; a plurality of third stage port processors connected to the plurality of second stage port processors; wherein the statistics block is further coupled to one or more neighboring integrator blocks for transmitting a token bit to the corresponding integrator block and the one or more neighboring integrator blocks, the statistics block transmitting the token bit in response to a second stage port processor associated with the statistics block receiving a data packet from one of the plurality of the first stage port processors; wherein the statistic block further comprises a real-time counter for accumulating real-time statistics of data packet arrivals from one of the plurality of first stage port processors and data packet departures to one of the plurality of third stage port processors.