Patent ID: 7983167

Claim:
A network switch, comprising: a first sub-switch comprising: a plurality of ports; a forwarding engine that communicates with the ports; a control plane processor that communicates with the forwarding engine; a first sub-switch interface that communicates with the forwarding engine and that receives a path message from a second sub-switch in the network switch; a second sub-switch interface that communicates with the forwarding engine; and a third sub-switch, wherein the second sub-switch interface transmits the path message to the third sub-switch in the network switch, wherein the second sub-switch interface receives a reserve message from the third sub-switch that identifies requested resources for a planned data flow having a quality of service, wherein the control plane processor attempts to reserve the requested resources on the second sub-switch interface based on the quality of service, and wherein the first sub-switch, the second sub-switch and the third sub-switch directly send data to and directly receive data from a common external network, and wherein the third sub-switch generates the reserve message to reserve the requested resources of the first sub-switch and the second sub-switch in response to the path message.