Patent ID: 6970433

Claim:
In a star network comprising a plurality of N nodes where N is an integer equal to or greater than three, the N nodes being intercoupled by a plurality of links, with one of the nodes being the hub node h and the other of the nodes being {x 1 , . . . , X Nâˆ’1 } spoke nodes coupled to the hub node by links each comprising a plurality of W channels going into the hub node h and out of the hub node h, where W is even, a method of configuring the nodes comprising: (a) dividing the channels into two sets, will each set comprising W/2 channels, where the first set has channels numbered {0, . . . , W/2âˆ’1} and the second set has channels numbered {W/2, . . . , Wâˆ’1}; and (b) configuring the hub node such that channel i on any one of the links may be coupled to channel w(i) on any of the links, where w(i) equals i+W/2 and where i is no greater than W.