Methods and apparatus for event-driven routing

A router for routing data packets, comprising:

• input physical channels for incrementally receiving portions of the data packets;
• output physical channels;
• data buffers, coupled with the input and output physical channels, for storing the portions of the data packets;
• and
• control circuitry, coupled with the input and output physical channels and the data buffers, for generating virtual channel assignments that assign virtual channels to the data packets, and generating physical channel assignments that assign the output physical channels to the virtual channels, each of the assignments being generated in response to queued arrival and credit events, the portions of the data packets being forwarded from the data buffers to the output physical channels according to the generated virtual and physical channel assignments.

A method for routing data packets from input physical channels to output physical channels, the method comprising the steps of:

• receiving at least portions of the data packets over the input physical channels;
• generating channel assignments in response to queued events, the step of generating channel assignments including the steps of:
• generating virtual channel assignments that assign virtual channels to the data packets;
• and
• generating physical channel assignments that assign the output physical channels to the virtual channels, each of the assignments being generated in response to queued arrival and credit events;
• and
• outputting the portions of the data packets over the output physical channels according to the generated virtual and physical channel assignments.