Patent ID: 6990063

Claim:
A method performed by a packet switch, the packet switch including one or more multistage interconnection networks, each of said one or more multistage interconnection networks including a plurality of switching stages which include a first switching stage, a final switching stage, and one or more intermediate switching stages in between the first and final switching stages, said or more intermediate switching stages including a broadcast component, the method comprising: recognizing an error within the packet switch by one of the plurality of switching stages; sending a particular packet from said one of the plurality of switching stages to the broadcast component through at least a portion of said one or more interconnection networks in response to said recognizing the error, the particular packet including an indication of the error and an indication corresponding to the broadcast component; notifying a plurality of input components of the packet switch of the error, said notifying including sending one or more packets indicating the error from the broadcast component through at least a second portion of said one or more interconnection networks, said second portion including the final switching stage; each of the plurality of input components updating one or more status data structures in response to receiving a notification of the error; and each of the plurality of input components determining which particular path of a plurality of paths leading to a destination output component over which to send a packet received at said respective input component, with the path being determined by referencing said one or more status data structures; which includes ANDing a bit vector representing a set of possible paths leading to the destination output component with one or more bit vectors representing the status the set of possible paths maintained in said one or more data structures to identify a set of available paths, and selecting said particular path from the set of available paths.