APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR STORING DATA SEGMENTS IN A MULTIPLE NETWORK SWITCH SYSTEM USING A MEMORY POOL

Multiple network switch modules have memory interfaces configured for transferring packet data to respective local buffer memories via local memory controllers. The local memory controllers are connected to each other to form a signal memory pool for transfer among each other data units of data frames received from different network switch modules. Each of the controllers are also connected to a corresponding local buffer memory and either write received data units in the corresponding local buffer memory or transfer the received data units to other controllers that, in turn, write the data units in their corresponding local buffer memory. The local memory controllers transfer and write and read the data units according to a prescribed sequence, optimizing memory bandwidth by concurrently executing a prescribed number of successive memory writes or memory reads.