Importance

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Abstract

The invention relates to a switch arrangement for a packet-switched telecommunications network. The switch arrangement comprises several input ports and several output ports, a switching fabric (SWN), and an output unit (OU.sub.i) between each output port and the switching fabric, the output unit comprising an output buffer (OB) in which outbound packets are stored. In the switch, virtual connections are used for packet switching and serial numbers in packets belonging to each virtual connection are used to identify the relative order of the packets. The output unit (OU.sub.i) maintains virtual connection-specific information on the serial number of the currently anticipated packet, and the packets belonging to a given virtual connection are ordered in the correct sequence in accordance with the serial numbers of the packets. To provide a simple and efficient arrangement in terms of hardware configuration, packet data are stored in a separate re-sequencing memory (RST1, RST2) in a memory area that is defined at least on the basis of the serial number of the packet, and by the re-sequencing memory, packets are transferred to the output buffer by searching in each case packet data from that memory area of the re-sequencing memory which is defined at least on the basis of the anticipated serial number, whereby when the data of a given packet are found the packet is transferred to the output buffer. When a packet is transferred to the output buffer, the serial number of the anticipated packet is updated.

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First Claim