Appeal No. 1997-3211
Application No. 08/457,789
other functional elements over a common and small set of
point-to-
point-interconnecting wires. Appellants assert at pages 5 and
6 of the specification that the switching network performs
connection control and data transfer without requiring
synchronized clocking signals, and further resolves connection
conflicts instantaneously on an asynchronous basis.
Claim 34 is illustrative of the invention and reads as
follows:
34. A switching network comprising:
a plurality of bufferless switching apparatuses
cascaded into a plurality of stages, said switching
apparatuses each including a plurality of switch
inputs and a plurality of switch outputs, of the switch
outputs included on each of said switching apparatuses
each coupled to a different one of the switching
apparatuses via a switch input of said different one
of the switching apparatuses, switch outputs of last
stage switching apparatuses each comprising a network
output port and switch inputs of first stage switching
apparatuses each comprising a network input port;
the network output ports each coupled to a network
input port through one of a plurality of nodes, each of
said nodes comprising means for receiving a data message
from a coupled network output port and means for sending
a data message to a coupled network input port, said data
message to a coupled network input port including a path
connection request; and
2
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