US Patent 7142546 Distributed pipeline scheduling method and system

In a distributed pipeline scheduling method for a system which includes a plurality of input ports for inputting data, a plurality of output ports for outputting data, a data switch element for switching the data input from the input ports and transferring the data to the output ports, and a scheduler having a distributed scheduling architecture for controlling the data switch element, and determines connection reservations between the input ports and the output ports, the scheduler independently assigns time slots to information transfer processing and reservation processing. Processing information transfer processing and reservation processing are performed in the assigned time slots in a pipeline fashion. A distributed pipeline scheduling system and distributed scheduler are also disclosed.