| 摘要 |
The present invention relates to a method of controlling the flow of data packets in a switching unit that includes a number of ingress-selector stages (11, 12, ..., 1n), a number of egress-selector stages (21, 22, ..., 2n), a selector core (3), a number of queue buffers (111, 112, ..., 11n) related to respective ingress-selector stages, a number of output buffers (21B, 22B, ..., 2nB) of which at least one is related to a respective egress-selector stage, and a flow control unit (4). Information-carrying data packets can be stored temporarily in queue buffers (111) related to an ingress-selector stage (11), whereafter these data packets can be transferred to and thereafter stored in one of the output buffers (21B) via the selector core (3). The flow control unit (4) functions to control the data packet flow between the queue buffers (111, 112, ..., 11n) and the output buffers (21B, 22B, ..., 2nB). This control is achieved by allowing the transfer of data packets between the queue buffers (111, 112, ..., 11n) and the output buffers (21B, 22B,..., 2nB) solely in response to the issuance of an order from the flow control unit (4), and totally in accord with said order. The present invention also relates to a switching unit which is adapted to function in accordance with the inventive method. |
