Flow control system to reduce memory buffer requirements and to establish priority servicing between networks

A system to enable electronic signal exchange between a first network and a second network, the system comprising:

• a. a switch engine connected to receive signals of a first one of the two networks and having a plurality of output communication ports for the transfer of the signals between the first network and the second network and at least one transmit signal storage buffer for each of the output communication ports;
• b. a hardware interface block having:
• i) a plurality of input communication ports connected to the switch engine for receiving signals from the output communication ports of the switch engine;
• ii) a multiplexer connected to the plurality of input communication ports for multiplexing the received signals;
• iii) flow control circuitry connected to the switch engine to regulate packet transfer from the switch engine to the input communication ports;
• and iv) an interface transmit packet buffer component connected to the multiplexer, wherein the transmit packet buffer component includes one or more packet buffers fewer in number than the number of the transmit signal storage buffers of the switch engine;
• and
• c. network interface circuitry connected to the hardware interface block for transferring signals from the transmit packet buffer component to the second of the two networks.