Patent ID: 7177317

Claim:
A method of processing a sequence of unicast cells forming a unicast frame in a switch, said method comprising: (a) receiving said sequence of unicast cells on a unicast virtual connection, said sequence of unicast cells including a head cell, a plurality of intermediate cells and a last cell together forming said unicast frame defined according to a protocol which defines a content of said unicast frame; (b) storing said sequence of unicast cells in said switch; and (c) forwarding said sequence of unicast cells on a port of said switch only after said last cell is received in said switch such that said first cell is transmitted only after reception of said last cell, said sequence of unicast cells being forwarded on the same unicast virtual connection as said unicast virtual connection on which said sequence of unicast cells are received such that said unicast virtual connection is not merged with other unicast virtual connections when said sequence of unicast cells are transmitted from said switch; wherein (a) comprises receiving said sequence of unicast cells on a connection, wherein (b) comprises storing said sequence of unicast cells in a connection queue, and wherein the method further comprises: placing said head cell in one of a sequence of buckets of a group, wherein a plurality of groups are provided to serve an output port of said switch; and sending said sequence of unicast cells for transmission in successive turns allocated to said group immediately after the turn of said head cell in said one of said plurality of buckets is reached.