Patent ID: 7804825

Claim:
A switching array comprising: (a) a plurality of three stage switching arrays; and (b) an expansion switching array, wherein a second stage of each of the three stage switching arrays includes an expansion section comprising switches which facilitate interconnection of each three stage array to the expansion switching array; (c) wherein each of the plurality of three stage switching arrays comprises a first stage array having N inputs and K outputs and a third stage array having K inputs and N outputs, each second stage array of each three stage switching array receiving M local inputs from the first stage array and providing M local outputs to the third stage switching array, each second stage switching array further providing P outputs to the expansion array and receiving P inputs from the expansion array, where K, N, M and P are integers; and (d) wherein the switching array comprises a plurality of nodes and wherein, in each node, there are K second stage arrays, M first stage arrays, and M third stage arrays, and wherein the number of expansion switching arrays in the expansion array is equal to K×P.