DISTRIBUTION OF STATUS INFORMATION FROM SEVERAL VIRTUAL OUTPUT QUEUES OVER A PLURALITY OF SWITCH CARDS OF A PACKET SWITCHING DEVICE

摘要

The invention relates to a packet switching device comprising at least one line card (1 and 2) with a port control (6 and 7) for storage and arrangement of packets in output queues and for generating status information of the output queue, and at least one switch card (3 to 5) consisting of a crosspoint matrix (8) and an arbiter (9) to control the crosspoint matrix (8), the port control (6 and 7) being provided for distributing the status information over several arbiters (9). Each responding arbiter (9) is provided to cyclically receive a respective part of the status information from the port control.