One-sided crosspoint switch with distributed control

Claim 1

A one-sided crosspoint switch for making simultaneous electrical interconnections among a plurality of ports in response to interconnection requests, comprising: a plurality of internal buses; a plurality of crosspoint switching elements; each one of said crosspoint switching elements being connected to one of said ports and to one of said internal buses for selectively electrically interconnecting said connected port to said connected internal bus; a plurality of controllers; each one of said controllers being connected to and controlling all of said crosspoint switching elements that are connected to a unique set of said internal buses; each distinct electrical interconnection possibility between any two of said ports being uniquely assigned to one of said controllers; port status table means responsive to said controllers for storing the status of each of said ports as either connected to another one of said ports or disconnected; means within each one of said controllers for receiving interconnection requests and for recognizing an interconnection request that corresponds to an interconnection possibility assigned to said each one controller; means within said each one controller, responsive to recognition of an interconnection request by said recognizing means, for accessing said port status table means to determine whether the ports needed to implement said recognized interconnection request are available and for determining whether at least one of said internal buses controlled by said each one controller is available; and means within said each one controller, responsive to said recognizing means and said accessing and determining means when the needed ports are available and at least one of said controlled internal buses is available, for implementing said recognized interconnection request using one of said at least one available controlled internal buses; and means responsive to implementation of each interconnection request for updating said port status table means, whereby said controllers can simultaneously process and implement a plurality of interconnection requests.