Methods and apparatus for selecting the better cell from redundant streams within a cell-oriented environment

摘要

A method of switching a first stream of data communication cells originating from a first source and a second stream of data communication cells originating from a second source comprising:
assigning sequence codes to the data communication cells;
copying the first stream of data communication cells to form a third stream of data communication cells;
copying the second stream of data communication cells to form a fourth stream of data communication cells;
switching the first stream, second stream, third stream and fourth stream;
combining the first and third streams of data communication cells;
combining the second and fourth streams of data communication cells;
comparing corresponding cells in the first and third streams of cells by use of the sequence codes for the first and third streams of cells;
comparing corresponding cells in the second and fourth streams of cells by use of the sequence codes for the second and fourth streams of cells;
selecting at least one of the compared corresponding cells in the first and third streams based on one or more selection criterion; and
selecting at least one of the compared corresponding cells in the second and fourth streams based on the one or more selection criterion.