Patent ID: 7760716

Claim:
A switching node comprising: a plurality of switch units each switch unit having m inward ports and n outward ports, m>1, n>1; a plurality of source nodes each source node having an outbound channel to each switch unit of a respective primary set of μ switch units from among said plurality of switch units; and a plurality of sink nodes each sink node having an inbound channel from each switch unit of a respective secondary set of ν switch units from among said plurality of switch units; wherein said respective primary set of μ switch units and said respective secondary set of ν switch units are selected so that said each source node has a simple switched path to said each sink node, said simple switched path traversing only one switch unit; wherein each of said source nodes is integrated with a sink node from said plurality of sink nodes to enable formation of (Ω−1) independent compound paths, Ω=min(μ,ν), from any source node to any sink node, each said compound path comprising two simple switched paths.