Patent ID: 7889723

Claim:
An edge node comprising: a plurality of ingress ports for receiving data packets from subtending data sources; a plurality of inbound ports for receiving inbound data bursts from a plurality of bufferless core nodes and disassembling said inbound data bursts into constituent data packets; a switch fabric; an edge controller; a plurality of egress ports for transmitting data packets to subtending data sinks; and a plurality of outbound ports, where each outbound port is coupled to a burst-formation device, said burst-formation device: forms outbound data bursts each containing a number of data packets received from ingress ports and from inbound ports through said switch fabric; and transmits said outbound data bursts to a selected core node among said plurality of bufferless core nodes; where said burst-formation device forms said outbound data bursts according to at least one of two modes: in a first mode: said each burst-formation device independently forms said bursts from already waiting data packets; and sends scheduling requests to a corresponding core node; in a second mode: said each burst-formation device sends flow-rate allocation requests to a respective core node; receives burst-transfer permits containing burst-formation instructions from said respective core nodes; and forms constrained bursts according to said burst-formation instructions.