Patent ID: 7145904

Claim:
A method of switching packets, the method comprising: receiving a packet with a source line card; transforming the packet into one or more internal frames in the source line card, wherein each user internal frame includes a user switching tag and corresponding user data payload; transmitting the one or more user internal frames from the source line card to a switch fabric having a cross-point switch; storing the one or more internal frames in a cross-point buffer in the cross-point switch; forwarding the one or more internal frames from the cross-point buffer to a destination line card; providing a cross-point buffer having plurality of cross-point queues at each cross-point of the cross-point switch; maintaining a plurality of actual available queue space tables (AAQSTs) in the switch fabric, wherein each of the AAQSTs indentifies actual availavle queue space in a corresponding set of the cross-point queues; and maintaining a predicted available queue space table (PAQST) in each of the line cards, each of the PAQSTs identifying predicted available queue space in a corresponding set of the cross-point queues, each of the PAQSTs corresponding with one of the AAQSTs.