Methods and apparatus for enqueueing and dequeueing data cells in an ATM switch fabric architecture

A switching device for transmitting a data cell in a network, the network having a plurality of network destinations coupled thereto, the data cell comprising a first data field, the first data field corresponding to a first group of network destinations to which the data cell is to be transmitted, the switching device comprising:

• a plurality of outputs;
• a queue for temporarily storing the data cell;
• and
• a memory for storing a plurality of data words, each data word comprising a plurality of first bits, each of said first bits corresponding to a different one of said outputs;
• wherein the data cell is placed on selected ones of the outputs for transmission to the first group of network destinations, the selected ones of the outputs corresponding to first bits which have been set in a first data word selected from the plurality of data words, the first data word being selected in response to the first data field in the data cell.

A method for transmitting a data cell to a plurality of network destinations using a switch element having a plurality of outputs, the data cell having a first data field, the first data field corresponding to a first group of network destinations to which the data cell is to be transmitted, the method comprising the steps of:

• storing the data cell in a queue;
• using the first data field to select a first data word from a memory, the first data word comprising first bits, each of the first bits corresponding to a different one of the switch element outputs;
• and
• placing the data cell on selected ones of the switch element outputs for transmission to the first group of network destinations, the selected ones of the switch outputs corresponding to first bits in the first data word which have been set.