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. 14, 2005
Filed:
Mar. 07, 2000
Jonathan S. Turner, St. Louis, MO (US);
Zubin D. Dittia, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
John Andrew Fingerhut, San Mateo, CA (US);
Jonathan S. Turner, St. Louis, MO (US);
Zubin D. Dittia, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
John Andrew Fingerhut, San Mateo, CA (US);
Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Washington University, St. Louis, MO (US);
Abstract
Methods and apparatus for forwarding packets in a multistage interconnection network are provided which timestamp packets using a substantially system-wide timing reference and a merge sorting variant to restore packets to the proper order, using the timestamp information carried in the packets. One implementation determines when packets passing along different paths in the network can be safely forwarded, even when no packets have recently been received on some of the paths, by forwarding status messages along otherwise idle paths. The status messages provide information that can be used by downstream components to allow them to determine when packets passing over other paths can safely be forwarded. One implementation simultaneously resequences packets being delivered to all n outputs of the multistage interconnection network. The resequencing operations are distributed among a plurality of switching elements making up the interconnection network.