Patent ID: 7085269

Claim:
A packet switch comprising a plurality of input buffer units each for tentatively storing unicast packets to be switched from a single input port to a single output port and multicast packets to be switched from a single input port to a plurality of output ports, the packet switch thus switching together the unicast and multicast packets, wherein: the packet switch further comprises a plurality of unicast packet output buffers for tentatively accumulating unicast packets to be outputted to the output ports, and a multicast packet output buffer provided separately from the unicast packet output buffers for tentatively storing the multicast packets to be outputted to the output ports; congestion evasion signals for unicasting and congestion evasion signals for multicasting are independently sent out to the input buffer units; and a bit map table for storing multicast packet output port data indicative of output ports, which multicast packets are to be outputted from, the bit map table being provided at a stage subsequent to a packet multiplexer for multiplexing together unicast and multicast packets.