Cell combination to utilize available switch bandwidth

摘要

An apparatus and method for enabling the combination of multiple streams of data cells into a single thread. By enabling plural input ports of an intermediate device to access a single parallel output port of the device, plural network switch elements share a single thread through a switch fabric. For instance, the method and apparatus permit interleaving the relatively low bandwidth cell outputs of two ATM network switch central control processors onto a single thread routed through an interconnected switch fabric. Certain of these cells are received from the switch fabric at a parallel input of the intermediate device, then routed to one of plural serial output ports. Pacing of cells provided to the plural serial input ports prevents exceeding the shared thread bandwidth.