Fault tolerant switch fabric with control and data correction by hamming codes and error inducing check register

Claims

What is claimed is:

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.

2. The dynamic switch organization of claim 1, wherein said error correction scheme is a Hamming error correction scheme.

3. The dynamic switch organization of claim 1, wherein said plurality of data bits and said plurality of check bits satisfy the following equation:

2.sup.Y >(X+Y)

in which X is the number of data bits and Y is the number of check bits.

4. The dynamic switch organization of claim 3, wherein said plurality of data bits includes nine data bits, and said plurality of check bits includes four check bits.

5. The dynamic switch organization of claim 1, wherein each of said data information and said control information includes a plurality of data bits and a plurality of check bits that satisfy the following equation:

2.sup.Y >(X+Y)

in which X is the number of data bits and Y is the number of check bits.

6. The dynamic switch organization of claim 5, wherein said plurality of data bits includes nine data bits, and said plurality of check bits includes four check bits.

7. A dynamic switch organization having a fault tolerant control entity comprising:

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.

8. The dynamic switch organization of claim 7, wherein said control means is distributed across said data path.

9. The dynamic switch organization of claim 7, wherein said data path transmits parallel data bits, and said control information is transmitted in parallel along said data path.

10. The dynamic switch organization of claim 7, wherein said crosspoint switch fabric includes error correction means for applying an error correction scheme to said data information and said control information.

11. The dynamic switch organization of claim 10, wherein said error correction scheme is a Hamming error correction scheme.

12. A dynamic switch organization having a fault tolerant control entity distributed across a data path comprising:

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. <