Low delay atm switching system using idle cells stamped with reference time

Abstract From the Canadian patent

In a multi-stage switching system, a time stamp is attached to each cell at an entry point of the system indicating the time of arrival of the cell, and the cell is transferred to a network comprising multiple switching stages each being composed of basic switching modules. The switching modules of all stages are interconnected to form the network. Each switching module comprises a self-routing switch and buffers connected thereto. The time stamp of cells arriving at a given one of the switching modules, where the cells are likely to arrive out of sequence is constantly, monitored and a minimum value of the time stamps is detected. When an empty buffer exists in the given switching module …