Patent ID: 7631133

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a backplane including slot connectors and conductors extending directly between some of the slot connectors forming a sparse mesh interconnection scheme to provide direct and indirect connections among a plurality of slots in communication with the backplane with at least some of the plurality of slots being directly connected to more than two others of the plurality of slots but without any of the plurality of slots being directly connected to all of the plurality of slots, wherein the direct connections are provided between slots having conductors extending directly therebetween, wherein the conductors extend between each of the slots and at least two nearest neighbor slots and at least two farthest neighbor slots to provide direct connections therebetween, wherein the backplane complies with a telecommunication architecture specification, wherein each of the plurality of slots is capable of operating as a source slot to send a first data set via the backplane, an intermediate slot to receive the data set from a source slot via the backplane and to send the data set via the backplane and a destination slot to receive the data set from an intermediate slot via the backplane, and wherein the indirect connections are provided between a source slot and a destination slot via an intermediate slot.