USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

Neal E Moody

Gair D Brown

Thomas F Cocke, Iv

Roland H Mattoon

Timothy Y Gorder

Harry F Francis

Gary S Calvert, Ii

A combination delivering signals between a plurality of devices includes a mixed-layer switching fabric, and a controller which controls the mixed-layer switching fabric. According to the present invention, the controller includes a first device for automatically performing fault recognition and fault isolation routines when the multi-interface switching system is initialized and periodically thereafter, and a second device for performing the fault recognition and fault isolation routines on demand. Moreover, the mixed-layer switching fabric further includes a computer controlled switch which establishes one of point-to-point connections and point-to-multipoint connections under the control of the controller, the computer controlled switch comprising a non-volatile memory which stores switch configuration data indicative of a current configuration of the switching fabric to thereby facilitate fail-safe operation of the switching system without requiring re-initialization or re-configuration of the switching system upon power-up of the switching system following an occurrence of a power-down condition of the switching system.

Multi-interface point-to-point switching system (MIPPSS) with rapid fault recovery capability

A multi-interface point-to-point switching system includes a plurality of I/O ports coupled to a plurality of respective devices, a switching fabric, and a controller. Advantageously, the controller determines the path bit error rate for each all possible signal paths that are presently available, then selects the presently available one of the possible signal paths for each connection that has the lowest path bit error rate, and then configures the switching fabric to establish the selected signal path for each connection. According to the present invention, the switching fabric selectively delivers each of a plurality of different signals from a selected one of the I/O ports coupled to a sending one of the devices to another selected one of the I/O ports coupled to a receiving one of the devices, to thereby establish respective connections between the sending and receiving devices, wherein the switching fabric provides a fixed, low latency signal path for each connection, whereby the latency of that connection is deterministic and predictable, and a data content of the signal delivered via that connection is not analyzed by the switching fabric, whereby the switching fabric operates in a message-independent manner.

Dynamic switch path verification system within a multi-interface point-to-point switching system (MIPPSS)

A multi-interface point-to-point switching system includes a plurality of I/O ports coupled to a plurality of respective devices, a switching fabric that selectively delivers each of a plurality of different signals from a selected one of the I/O ports coupled to a sending one of the devices to another selected one of the I/O ports coupled to a receiving one of the devices, to thereby establish respective connections between the sending and receiving devices, and a controller that determines the latency of all possible signal paths that are presently available for each connection to be established, selects the lowest-latency signal path for each connection that it determines is presently available, and then configures the switching fabric to establish the selected signal path for each connection. According to one aspect of the invention, the switching fabric provides a fixed, low latency signal path for each connection whereby the latency of that connection is deterministic and predictable. Moreover, the switching system ensures that the data content of the signal delivered via that connection is not analyzed by the switching fabric, i.e., the switching fabric operates in a message-independent manner.

Latency verification system within a multi-interface point-to-point switching system (MIPPSS)

A multi-interface point-to-point switching system includes a plurality of I/O ports coupled to a plurality of respective devices, and a switching fabric that selectively delivers each of a plurality of different signals from a selected one of the I/O ports coupled to a sending one of the devices to another selected one of the I/O ports coupled to a receiving one of the devices, to thereby establish respective connections between the sending and receiving devices. According to one aspect of the invention, at least one of the different signals is a parallel interface format signal and at least one of the different signals is a serial interface format signal. Moreover, the switching fabric does not interact with any data transfer protocol used by the devices for data communications with one another. According to another aspect of the invention, the switching fabric provides a fixed, low latency signal path for each connection between a sending and receiving device for the duration of that connection, whereby the latency of that connection is deterministic and predictable, and the signal being delivered via that connection is not analyzed or processed by the switching fabric.

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Fruitland, MD, United States of America

Neal E Moody