Method and apparatus for providing efficient application-level switching for multiplexed internet protocol media streams

摘要

A method and apparatus for efficient switching of multiplexed streams by mapping multiplexed frames with channel identifiers in multiplexed streams to corresponding output streams and channel identifiers. A system in accordance with the principles of the present invention includes a plurality of input ports for receiving packets for switching, a plurality of output ports, each of the plurality of output ports having an output queue and a switching fabric, disposed between the plurality of input and output ports. The switching fabric identifies an input multiplexed stream to which a received packet belongs, notes the channel identifier of each frame in the received packet, identifies an output multiplexed stream and channel identifier corresponding to the input multiplexed stream and channel identifier for each frame in the received packet and inserting each frame for transmission to the output queue associated with the identified corresponding multiplexed stream and channel identifier.