Patent ID: 6925578

Claim:
A fault-tolerant computer network, comprising: a plurality of end nodes; a plurality of fault-tolerant switches that are coupled to the plurality of end nodes; and a plurality of redundant parallel data paths coupling the plurality of end nodes to the plurality of fault-tolerant switches and carrying redundant data streams, wherein each fault-tolerant switch is connected to at least first and second input data paths and at least first and second output data paths, each fault-tolerant switch is adapted to: receive at least first data and second data over respective first and second input data paths, the first data and second data being redundant; detect whether the first data is erroneous and the second data is good; and in response to detecting the first data is erroneous and the second data is good, send the second data over both the first and second output data paths instead of sending the first data over the first output data path and the second data over the second output data path.