FLEXIBLE LINK LEVEL RETRY FOR SHARED MEMORY SWITCHES

Disclosure is made of a shared memory switch and methods and system for controlling such. The shared memory switch may allocate cells in a storage array to respective use cases, the use cases including input buffering, output queuing, free cell allocation, and retry buffering. A set of data packets may be stored in the cells allocated to output queuing, wherein each cell allocated to output queuing stores a respective data packet of the set of data packets. A subset of the set of data packets may be transmitted to a destination external to the shared memory switch. The cells storing the subset of data packets may be reallocated to the retry buffering use case, wherein cells allocated to retry buffering use case are a retry buffer.