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:
Jan. 29, 2002
Filed:
Jul. 24, 1998
Alain Blanc, Tourrettes sur Loup, FR;
Bernard Brezzo, Nice, FR;
Pierre Debord, Tourrettes sur Loup, FR;
Patrick Jeanniot, LaGaude, FR;
Alain Saurel, Nice, FR;
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for managing contention in a self-routing switching architecture based on a set of n×n individual switching structures that are connected in a port expansion mode by means of fan-out and fan-in circuits providing access of the Switch Core Access Layer (SCAL) to the different input and output ports of the switching core. The fan-in circuits use an arbitration mechanism for providing a token to the switch that is allowed to deliver the next cell and the arbiter operates from a detection of a special comma character in accordance with the 8B/10B coding scheme which is introduced in the data flow between the individual switching structures and the fan-in circuits. This provides a compensation for the difference in transfer delays of the cells even when high switching speed and long length of the physical media are involved.