Patent ID: 8165145

Claim:
In a device including a plurality of source line cards connected to a plurality of destination line cards via a switch fabric, a method comprising: receiving a plurality of data packets at one or more of the plurality of source line cards, one or more of the plurality of data packets including an associated packet header; storing, in a memory, one or more of the associated packet headers from the one or more of the plurality of data packets; transmitting the one or more of the associated packet headers to one of a plurality of header queues; selecting one of the associated packet headers from one of the plurality of header queues; determining, based on the selected packet header, a number of associated data cells required to transmit one of the one or more of the plurality of data packets associated with the selected packet header; generating, based on the selected packet header, a number of requests, corresponding to the determined number of data cells required to transmit the one of the one or more of the plurality of data packets associated with the selected packet header, for transferring through the switch fabric the one of the one or more of the plurality of data packets associated with the selected packet header; and transferring the one of the one or more of the plurality of data packets through the switch fabric using the number of requests.