The device comprises a traffic summator (4) for summing the number of cells which are present on each incoming highway of the switch during each cell instant and are destined for one and the same outgoing highway (p). A highway emulation group (p) is allocated to each outgoing highway. It is composed of a specified number of counters (B.sub.i) simultaneously loaded with the total number of cells which are destined for the outgoing highway and are presented on the incoming highways of the switch. The respective counts of each counter (B.sub.i) are limited by thresholds (S.sub.i) so as to estimate, when the number of cells totalled up in a counter (B.sub.i) exceeds a threshold (S.sub.i), the number of cells which may be lost on the corresponding outgoing highway (p).

Congestion at an output from a node in a packet data communications network is controlled by maintaining a traffic profile based on the discardability/priority characteristics of recently received packets and by selecting at least an initial discard strategy which should be effective in ending congestion based on that profile. The profile is established by maintaining counts of the number of packets actually stored in an output buffer and of the number of packets which would have been stored if different discard strategies had been in force. The relationship of certain of the count values to a threshold determines which discard strategy is initially selected. Different, successively less intrusive discard strategies can be implemented until the congestion ends.

A bus arbitration method for telecommunications switching is provided that receives a plurality of requests of a plurality of priorities for an available asynchronous bus time slot, wherein each request has a weighted age. The plurality of requests are ordered according to the weighted age of each request and access to the bus time slot is granted to a request having the highest weighted age. Further, a bus arbitration method for telecommunications switching is provided that generates a plurality of requests of a plurality of priorities for each of a plurality of packets needing an available bus time slot. An amount of time during which each request is pending is measured. The plurality of requests for the available asynchronous bus time slot are sent to a centralized asynchronous slot arbiter operable to grant access to one of the plurality of packets corresponding to a request having a highest weighted age. The packet for which access is granted may then be placed in the available ingress asynchronous bus time slot by the interface module receiving the grant.

A device for receiving cells with varying time delays and for reconstructing a continuous signal from a sequence of the cells includes a delay absorbing unit for receiving, temporarily storing, and sending cells after absorbing a variation in time delays of the cells, a cell disassembling unit for reconstructing the continuous signal by processing the cells sent from the delay absorbing unit, and a cell counting unit for counting a number of the cells stored in the delay absorbing unit, wherein the cell disassembling unit starts processing a new cell when the number exceeds a predetermined number, so that a time delay of the continuous signal can be reduced.

A technique for reducing latencies in bridge operation, by facilitating cut-through transmission of a receive data packet while the packet is still being received, but without the need for starting or ending delimiters,or packet lengths, in the packet data. The technique can be applied to packets inbound from a network, packets outbound to a network, or packets being looped back to a client to which the bridge is connected. In the technique of the invention, each received packet is stored in a buffer memory and a count is maintained of the number of bits in the received packet. A transmit operation is started as soon as possible, preferably while the packet is still being received, and bytes are retrieved from the buffer memory for transmission. The transmit operation is terminated when a transmit byte count reaches the packet length as determined by the receive byte count. For cut-through operations, the transmit operation is started without knowledge of the packet length, but the packet length is made available to the transmit operation upon completion of the receive operation. For store-and-forward operations, the packet length is stored with the packet in the buffer memory, and retrieved for use in the transmit operation.