Fault tolerant switch fabric with control and data correction by hamming codes and error inducing check register
First Claim
1. A dynamic switch organization for error correction of a data path comprising:
- a crosspoint switch fabric having a plurality of inputs and a plurality of outputs, said crosspoint switch fabric including control means for directing data from one of said plurality of inputs to a particular output of said plurality of outputs, said data including a plurality of data bits and a plurality of check bits;
said crosspoint switch fabric including error correction means for applying an error correction scheme to said plurality of data bits and said plurality of check bits, said error correction means being effective to identify an erroneous bit and invert said erroneous bit in order to form corrected data;
means, connected to said error correction means, for causing an error on a particular data bit when coupled with a known data value; and
means for passing said particular data bit through said error correction means to observe said error.
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0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
There is provided a dynamic switch organization for error correction of a data path. The dynamic switch organization includes a data path for transmitting data information and control information and a crosspoint switch fabric having a plurality of inputs and a plurality of outputs along the data path. The crosspoint switch fabric has an arbitration bus and crosspoint switch boards coupled to the arbitration bus such that the boards are synchronized to process data in parallel. The crosspoint switch fabric also includes a control entity for directing data from one of the inputs to a particular one of the outputs, and the data includes data bits and check bits. The control entity is distributed among the crosspoint switch boards such that each board includes a portion of the control entity. In addition, the crosspoint switch fabric includes error correction mechanism for applying an error correction scheme, namely a Hamming error correction scheme, to the data and check bits so that the error correction mechanism identifies an erroneous bit and inverts the erroneous bit in order to form corrected data. An improvement is provided to the error correction scheme by adding a feature which allows for checking whether the scheme is operating properly; to enable, checking by means of diagnostic software, an error is deliberately introduced on a particular data bit.
80 Citations
23 Claims
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1. A dynamic switch organization for error correction of a data path comprising:
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a crosspoint switch fabric having a plurality of inputs and a plurality of outputs, said crosspoint switch fabric including control means for directing data from one of said plurality of inputs to a particular output of said plurality of outputs, said data including a plurality of data bits and a plurality of check bits; said crosspoint switch fabric including error correction means for applying an error correction scheme to said plurality of data bits and said plurality of check bits, said error correction means being effective to identify an erroneous bit and invert said erroneous bit in order to form corrected data; means, connected to said error correction means, for causing an error on a particular data bit when coupled with a known data value; and means for passing said particular data bit through said error correction means to observe said error. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A dynamic switch organization having a fault tolerant control entity comprising:
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a data path for transmitting data information and control information; a crosspoint switch fabric having a plurality of inputs and a plurality of outputs position along said data path, said crosspoint switch fabric including control means for directing said data information and said control information from one of said plurality of inputs to a particular output of said plurality of outputs; and said crosspoint switch fabric including means for causing an error on a particular data bit when coupled with a known data value, and means for passing said particular data bit through said crosspoint switch fabric to observe said error. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A dynamic switch organization having a fault tolerant control entity distributed across a data path comprising:
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a crosspoint switch fabric having an arbitration bus and a plurality of crosspoint switch boards coupled to said arbitration bus, said crosspoint switch boards being synchronized to process data in parallel, each of said crosspoint switch boards representing a portion of said data that is transmitted along the data path; control means distributed among said crosspoint switch boards, wherein each of said plurality of crosspoint switch boards includes a portion of said control means; and said crosspoint switch fabric including means for causing an error on a particular data bit when coupled with a known data value, and means for passing said particular data bit through said crosspoint switch fabric to observe said error. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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Specification