The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 20, 2001
Filed:
May. 15, 1998
Joel Adam, Baden, PA (US);
Joseph C. Kantz, Beaver Falls, PA (US);
Marconi Communications, Inc., Warrendale, PA (US);
Abstract
A switch for an ATM communication system. The ATM communication system has an ATM network on which ATM cells travel, source nodes connected to the ATM network which produce ATM cells and send them onto the ATM network, and destination nodes connected to the ATM network which receive ATM cells from the ATM network. The switch comprises input ports through which cells are received from the ATM network. The switch comprises output ports through which cells are transmitted to the ATM network. The switch comprises a switching mechanism connected to the input ports and output ports which transfer cells from the input ports to output ports. The switching mechanism has a unicast sending mechanism for sending unicast cells to an output port and has a multicast sending mechanism for sending multicast cells to a desired output port. The multicast sending mechanism is separate and different from the unicast sending mechanism.