Input buffer device and control method thereof

摘要

An input buffer device and control method of the input buffer device. The input buffer device includes a virtual output queuing (VOQ) buffering section which has a plurality of VOQ buffers. The input buffer device stores data which is input to an input port to a VOQ buffer corresponding to an intended output port of the data among the plurality of VOQ buffers. A shared buffering section is provided which stores the data when a VOQ buffer corresponding to the intended output port of the data is full of data. The stored data is forwarded to the VOQ buffer when the VOQ buffer is empty. Accordingly, the input buffer device can more efficiently process the data by use of the fixed-length FIFO buffers and the shared buffer.