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:
Jun. 17, 2003
Filed:
Sep. 18, 1998
Harry F. Francis, Alexandria, VA (US);
Thomas F. Cocke, IV, King George, VA (US);
Gary S. Calvert, II, Jamestown, NC (US);
Roland H. Mattoon, Montross, VA (US);
Timothy Y. Gorder, King George, VA (US);
Neal E. Moody, Fruitland, MD (US);
Gair D. Brown, King George, VA (US);
The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy, Washington, DC (US);
Abstract
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.