RECEIVER DECODING ALGORITHM TO ALLOW HITLESS N+1 REDUNDANCY IN A SWITCH

摘要

A switch for switching packets. The switch includes a plurality of fabrics (14) which switch portions of packets. The switch includes a port card (12) connected to the fabrics (14) and the network for receiving packets from and sending packets to the network. The port card (12) has a mechanism (16) for tolerating whether any one of the plurality of fabrics (14) has a failure and still sending correct packets to the network. A method for switching packets. The method includes the steps of receiving packets at a port card (12) from a network of a switch. Then there is the step of sending to fabrics (14) of the switch portions of the packets as stripes (20) from the port card (12). Next there is the step of switching the portions of the packets with the fabrics (14). Then there is the step of sending back to the port card the portions of the packets as stripes (20) from the fabrics (14). Next there is the step of sending correct packets with the port card (12) to the network even though one of the fabrics (14) has a failure.