Method of operating a scheduler of a crossbar switch and scheduler

摘要

The present invention relates to a method of operating a scheduler ( 100 ) of a crossbar switch ( 200 ), wherein said scheduler ( 100 ) comprises a tree structure comprising an input stage (IS) with a plurality of entry modules (E_- 1 , E_- 2 , . . . ) and at least one decider stage (DS_- 1 , DS_- 2 , . . . ), wherein each decider stage (DS_- 1 , DS_- 2 , . . . ) comprises at least one decider module (D_- 1 _- 1 , D_- 2 _- 1 , . . . ), wherein one or more modules (E_- 1 , E_- 2 , D_- 1 _- 1 , D_- 1 _- 2 , . . . ) are connected to a decider module (D_- 1 _- 1 , D_- 2 _- 1 , . . . ) of a subsequent decider stage (DS_- 1 , DS_- 2 , . . . ), wherein a packet reference is forwarded from said input stage (IS) or a decider stage to a subsequent decider stage depending on a forwarding decision that is made in a decider module (D_- 1 _- 1 , D_- 2 _- 1 , . . . ) characterized by the following steps: providing each packet reference with at least one individual attribute, storing accounting information for each of said modules (E_- 1 , E_- 2 , D_- 1 _- 1 , D_- 1 _- 2 ), wherein said accounting information depends on the packet references and/or the individual attribute(s) of the packet references which are processed by the respective module (E_- 1 , E_- 2 , D_- 1 _- 1 , D_- 1 _- 2 ), and making the forwarding decision depending on said accounting information.