Patent ID: 7558261

Claim:
An arrangement for service access in a data center, comprising: an aggregation switch configured to transfer data between a network and an access layer, the aggregation switch comprising a set of slots that allow connections to the aggregation switch; one or more service switches, each of the one or more service switches connected to a slot in a set of slots of the aggregation switch; a plurality of servers configured to process data in the data center, each of the plurality of servers coupled to a slot in the set of slots not already occupied by the one or more service switches; and a plurality of service modules coupled to each of the one or more service switches, wherein each of said plurality of service modules is configured to provide a service for said data when selected such that service modules selectively perform services on the data, wherein the selected service modules in the plurality of service modules provide services to the plurality of servers by receiving the data through the service switch from the aggregation switch, processing the data, and sending the processed data through the service switch and the aggregation switch for the plurality of servers while using less than a number of slots on the aggregation switch than a number of the plurality of service modules, wherein the one or more service switches include slots to allow additional service modules to be added for service selection without using additional slots in the aggregation switch.