OUTPUT SCHEDULING AND HANDLING MULTICAST TRAFFIC IN COMMUNICATION SWITCHING SYSTEMS

摘要

A novel method and apparatus to support multicast communications are disclosed. The disclosed invention is based on recycling the multicast cell address as many times as necessary within the output card of a data switching system, which accommodates multiple output ports, thereby avoiding the complex processing required to generate copies of the cell or the cell address. The invention allows efficient and scalable implementation of multicast traffic scheduling at output ports/cards of a switch/router. These properties, combined with its low implementation requirement, render t he invention particularly suitable for use in resource-constrained environment, such as satellite on-board packet switching systems.