System and method for improving multicast performance in banked shared memory architectures

1. A switch, comprising:

a plurality of ingress ports, said plurality of ingress ports receiving traffic from a corresponding first plurality of network devices that are coupled to said plurality of ingress ports via a respective first plurality of network communication cables;

a plurality of egress ports, said plurality of egress ports transmitting traffic to a corresponding second plurality of network devices that are coupled to said plurality of egress ports via a respective second plurality of network communication cables; and

a plurality of shared memory banks that couple said plurality of ingress ports to said plurality of egress ports, each of said plurality of shared memory banks having a main memory, wherein cache memory associated with a first of said plurality of shared memory banks is used to store multicast traffic, thereby enabling a read of unicast traffic stored in a main memory of said first of said plurality of shared memory banks in parallel with a read of multicast traffic stored in said cache memory associated with said first of said plurality of shared memory banks.

2. The switch of claim 1 , wherein each of said plurality of shared memory banks have a cache memory for storage of multicast traffic.

3. The switch of claim 1 , wherein said cache memory is associated with a group of shared memory banks.

4. A multicast traffic read method in a switch, comprising:

receiving a read request for a multicast traffic packet that is stored in an identified one of a plurality of shared memory banks that couple a plurality of ingress ports and a plurality of egress ports in said switch;

determining whether said requested multicast traffic packet is stored in a cache memory that is associated with said identified one of said plurality of shared memory banks;

reading said requested multicast traffic packet from said cache memory if it is determined that said requested multicast traffic packet is stored in said cache memory that is associated with said identified one of said plurality of shared memory banks; and

if it is determined that said requested multicast traffic packet is not stored in said cache memory that is associated with said identified one of said plurality of shared memory banks, then reading said requested multicast traffic packet from a main memory of said identified one of said plurality of shared memory banks.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein said determining comprises determining whether said requested multicast traffic packet is stored in a cache memory contained within said identified one of said plurality of shared memory banks.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein said determining comprises determining whether said requested multicast traffic packet is stored in a cache memory that is associated with a plurality of shared memory banks that include said identified one of said plurality of shared memory banks.

7. The method of claim 5 , further comprising reading a requested unicast traffic packet from a main memory of said identified one of said plurality of shared memory banks at the same time that said requested multicast traffic packet is read from said cache memory.

8. A multicast traffic read method in a switch, comprising:

receiving a read request for a multicast traffic packet that is stored in an identified one of a plurality of shared memory banks that couple a plurality of ingress ports and a plurality of egress ports in said switch;

storing said read request for said multicast traffic packet in a request cache;

counting additional read requests for said multicast traffic packet prior to a read event of said multicast traffic packet; and

transferring said multicast traffic packet obtained through said read event to a plurality of egress ports that are represented by said additional read requests.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising passing an identification of an egress port to a control element that controls said transferring.