Patent ID: 7397792

Claim:
An edge node comprising: a plurality of input ports including ingress ports for receiving data packets from subtending data sources, and inbound ports for receiving data bursts from external nodes; a plurality of output ports including egress ports for transmitting data packets to subtending data sinks and outbound ports for transmitting data bursts, each data burst comprising at least one data packet, to external nodes; an edge controller in communication with said input ports and output ports; an input control port for transmitting control signals from said ingress ports and inbound ports to said edge controller; and an output control port for transmitting control signals from said edge controller to said outbound ports and egress ports; wherein at least one outbound port has a bimodal burst-formation device operable to compute burst-descriptors and flow-rate-allocation requirements for data bursts; wherein said at least one outbound port transmits said burst descriptors and said flow-rate-allocation requirements to an external node; wherein at least one inbound port receives from said external node burst-transfer schedules for waiting bursts and burst-transfer permits for forthcoming bursts; and wherein said edge node forms multiple-source flow-rate-allocation requests each request specifying directed pairs of edge nodes, and a flow-rate for each of said pairs.