Importance

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Abstract

A packet switch with a plurality of processing modules (PMs) interconnected via a shared transmission medium is provided with a flat distributed architecture by which each of the PMs has the capability of exclusive control of establishing a path for a user connection through the switch when a call request (CR) packet is received at one of its input transmission lines to the switch, and in which the exclusive control is exercised by selecting the best available output transmission line among all of the output transmission lines from the switch whether that output transmission line is one of its own or one of those of another PM in the switch, so that the path for the user call connection through the switch established in response to a given CR packet at any given time is a single hop via the shared transmission medium between the source PM which established the path and the destination PM which has the selected output transmission line, except where a single PM is both the source and the destination PM because its own output transmission line is selected as the best currently available choice. System administration within the switch, including tasks such as software loading, redundancy establishment, switch reconfiguration, statistics collection and alarm reporting to the network management system, is performed by one or more of the PMs selected upon switch initialization according to programmed criteria including PM address.

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First Claim