Optimal load balancing across multiple switching fabrics

摘要

A system for efficiently sending cells in-order to independent switching fabrics according to a serial high speed interface (HSI) protocol. The system includes redundancy in that fabrics may be removed by deleting the fabrics from striping and reassembly sequences. When fabrics are added, the fabrics are added to the striping and reassembly sequences. The system is efficient due in part to in-order transmission of cells serially across multiple fabrics. Full fabric bandwidth is thereby utilized without reordering overhead. Since packets are striped across all available fabrics, load is balanced across the fabrics.