Patent ID: 6907041

Claim:
A method for distributed resequencing of packets in a packet switching system, the method comprising: identifying one or more floor indications received by a switching element, each of said one or more floor indications associated with a respective timestamp value; identifying one or more data packets received by the switching element, each of said one or more data packets associated with a respective timestamp value; finding an earliest timestamp value associated with said one or more floor indications and said one or more data packets; in response to making a determination that not one of said data packets has associated therewith the earliest timestamp value, always discontinuing forwarding of said one or more data packets for the remaining duration of a current cell time; and in response to identifying that a particular data packet of said data packets has associated therewith the earliest timestamp value, forwarding the particular data packet during the current cell time; wherein said forwarding the particular data packet during the current cell time includes removing the particular data packet from an arrival buffer and if said removing causes the arrival buffer to become empty, in response adding a new floor indication to the arrival buffer.