Patent ID: 6965602

Claim:
A method for operating a switching apparatus having multiple virtual queues and multiple switch chips, said method comprising: (a) receiving an incoming packet to be passed through the switching apparatus; (b) dividing the incoming packet into a plurality of fixed length blocks, the blocks including at least a header, a payload and a payload header, the header including control information, and the payload header including a destination identifier for the payload; (c) temporarily storing the blocks in the virtual queues; (d) determining when the payloads associated with the blocks associated with the incoming packet that are stored in the virtual queues are to be passed through the switch chips; (e) concurrently transferring each of the payloads and their payload headers for the blocks that are associated with the incoming packet from the virtual queues to different ones of the switch chips when said determining (d) determines that the payloads associated with the blocks are to be passed through the switch chips; and (f) concurrently switching the blocks associated with the incoming packet through the switch chips in accordance with the destination identifier provided within the payload header of each of the blocks, wherein said dividing (b) operates to divide the incoming packet into blocks of multiple types, and wherein the multiple types include at least a first type and a second type, wherein the size of the header of the blocks of the second type is smaller than the size of the header of the blocks of the first type, and wherein the amount of the data within the blocks of the second type is greater than the amount of the data within the blocks of the first type.