Similar to FIG. 4, FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of two schedule tables (i.e., schedule table 400 and schedule table 500) that are used in selecting egress ports for forwarding data items in a switch fabric, according to another embodiment. The schedule tables shown in FIG. 5, schedule table 400 and schedule table 500, are the same as the schedule tables shown and described with respect to FIG. 4, and are therefore not described in detail herein. The mapping setting between entries of schedule table 400 and entries of schedule table 500 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 5, however, is different from that in the embodiment shown in FIG. 4. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 5, more than one entry of schedule table 400 can be associated with one entry of schedule table 500. For example, the first three entries of schedule table 400 are all associated with the first entry of schedule table 500. As a result, the look-up table that stores the mapping setting between entries of schedule table 400 and entries of schedule table 500 is different from the look-up table in the embodiment of FIG. 4. Furthermore, as described with respect to FIG. 4, the mapping setting between an entry of schedule table 400 and an entry of schedule table 500 can be changed by modifying one or more corresponding entries in the look-up table. For example, group indicator 2 stored in column 420 of schedule table 400 that is associated with port list indicator 1 stored in column 510 of schedule table 500 (as shown in FIG. 5) can be changed to being associated with port list indicator 2 stored in column 510 of schedule table 500 (as shown in FIG. 4) by modifying a corresponding entry in the look-up table accordingly. Thus, a switch module can be configured to assign a different status indicator list and/or credit value list to data cells associated with a specific destination identifier by modifying one or more corresponding entries in the look-up table accordingly, without changing any entry in schedule table 400 and schedule table 500.
