Method and apparatus for controlling the flow of packets through a network switch

摘要

A method for transferring data includes connecting N ports of a crossbar to N devices, respectively, where N is an integer greater than one. Inbound data is received at one of the N ports from a respective one of the N devices. Dedicated connections are provided between an input buffer of one of the N ports and N−1 output buffers associated with others of the N ports, respectively. At least one of the N−1 output buffers of the others of the N ports is selected to output outbound data corresponding to the inbound data. The inbound data from the input buffer of one of the N ports is selectively transferred to at least one of the N−1 output buffers of the others of the N ports.