Abstract: A mechanism is disclosed for resolving conflicts between input ports of a Batcher-Banyan network that wish to transmit data packets to the same output port during a particular packet switching cycle. In the present invention, each Batcher-Banyan packet switch cycle is divided into three phases. The first phase is an arbitration phase in which output port conflicts are resolved. In the second phase, the results of the arbitration are communicated to the winning input ports. The third phase is a data packet transmission phase in which data packets from the winning input ports are actually transmitted through the Batcher-Banyan network.