Patent ID: 7310306

Claim:
A packet switching system comprising: a packet stream splitter; an input interface of the packet switching system, and a plurality of packet switches; wherein the input interface includes a plurality of configurable filters coupled to the packet stream splitter and each of said configurable filters is communicatively coupled to a different single one of said packet switches; wherein the packet stream splitter is configured to receive a packet stream and to provide a copy of said received packet stream to each of said configurable filters; and wherein each of said configurable filters is configured to forward an identifiable set of packets of said received packet stream such that each packet of said received packet stream is forwarded by a single one of said configurable filters regardless of the packet switching system being in a normal operating mode or a second operating mode; and wherein all packets forwarded by a configurable filter are forwarded to its corresponding said different single one of said packet switches; and wherein in a normal operating mode, each of said configurable filters is configured such that there is at least one packet in its said identifiable set of packets; and wherein in a second operating mode, a particular configurable filter of said configurable filters is configured to forward no packets, and said identifiable set of packets of at least one said configurable filters other than the particular configurable filter is different than when in the normal operating mode in order for all packets of said received stream of packets to be forwarded by a single one of said configurable filters.