US Patent 7751443 Intra-chassis packet arbitration scheme

A switching device and methods thereof are disclosed. One of the methods includes an arbitration process for communicating a data payload between interface modules. A first intra-chassis packet is sent by a source interface module to the target interface module. The first intra-chassis packet represents a request for permission to transmit a data payload to the target interface. A second intra-chassis packet is received at the source interface module from the target interface module indicating whether the request has been approved. If the request is approved, the source interface module sends a third intra-chassis packet comprising at least a portion of the data payload to the target interface module.