Patent ID: 7483998

Claim:
A cluster-based router comprising: a. a plurality of interconnected router cluster nodes, the routing capacity of the cluster router increasing substantially O(N) with the number N of router cluster nodes in the cluster router, each router cluster node having a group of cluster router external links enabling packet exchange with a plurality of external communication network nodes, wherein said plurality of interconnected router cluster nodes appears to external communications networks and nodes as a single communications network attached router; b. at least one special purpose cluster node providing special packet processing functionality that is not provided by any other of said router cluster nodes in the cluster router, wherein said at least one special purpose cluster is interconnected in a lattice of the cluster router but cannot be counted on to perform routing functions performed by said others of said router cluster nodes; c. a plurality of cluster router internal links interconnecting cluster nodes forming an intra-connection network ensuring a high path diversity in providing resiliency to failures; and d. a provisioned router-cluster-node-centric configuration distributed to each router cluster node for operating in accordance therewith in effecting distributed routing of the conveyed packets, wherein said provisioned router-cluster-node-centric configuration takes into account that said at least one special purpose router cluster node cannot be counted on to be aware of, or be configured via, said distributed cluster-node-centric router cluster node configuration.