Patent ID: 8908529

Claim:
A method of managing congestion in a multi-path network having a plurality of network elements arranged in a plurality of switch stages and a plurality of network links interconnecting the network elements, the method comprising the steps of: at a first network element of the network, detecting congestion on a network link interconnecting an output port of the network element concerned with a first input port of a second network element in a subsequent switch stage; at the second network element, in response to said detection of congestion, identifying an uncongested network link connected to a second input port of said second network element; at a third network element of the network and in response to the identifying of said uncongested network link, determining a route across said multipath network which includes said identified uncongested network link connected to said second input port of said second network element, and directing future data packets on the determined route across the multi-path network which includes the identified uncongested network link.