Patent ID: 8149828

Claim:
A network switch assembly for network communications, said network switch assembly comprising: a fabric blade comprising: at least two switches, each switch of the at least two switches comprising a respective plurality of data port interfaces, each respective plurality of data port interfaces being configured to transmit and receive data over a respective plurality of fabric data ports; a central processing unit (CPU) interface configured to communicate with an external CPU subsystem; and a plurality of port blades, each port blade of the plurality of port blades being operationally coupled with each of the at least two switches, wherein each port blade of the plurality of port blades comprises: a local CPU; at least one switch comprising: a plurality of data port interfaces, the plurality of data port interfaces being configured to transmit and receive data over a plurality of port data ports; and a local CPU interface configured to communicate with the local CPU, wherein the plurality of port data ports of each of the plurality of port blades are configured to communicate with the plurality of fabric data ports along multiple paths such that data received by the port data ports is switched to the fabric blade along a respective specified path of the multiple paths based on a portion of the received data.