Abstract: A method, apparatus and system for a scalable high capacity switch architecture involves a switching controller for use with a plurality of switching controllers in a switching system. Each switching controller has provisions for receiving a data packet, provisions for determining a destination of the data packet, provisions for determining whether any other switching controller in the system intends to transmit to the determined destination of the data packet and provisions for transmitting the received data packet to the determined destination when no other switching controllers intend to transmit to the determined destination.

Abstract: A new method of processing Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) signaling messages is described wherein a plurality of computing units (CUs), each running signaling processing software, collectively provide signaling processing services for all the ports of a switch. As more ports, and more cards, are added to a switch, CUs can be incrementally added to support additional traffic. More significantly, in order to optimize the utilization rates of the plurality of CUs, the method provides for dynamic load-sharing of signaling traffic between CUs, such that a CU is allocated not on a per port basis, but on a per switched virtual circuit (SVC) session basis.