Patent ID: 8199751

Claim:
A method of exchanging information transported in packets including a header and one or more payloads in a communication network comprising routers, wherein information is exchanged via the routers between a plurality of Intellectual Property (IP) cores using different protocols, said method comprising: transporting in a versatile packet format different traffic patterns generated by said IP cores using different protocols to ensure interoperability between said IP cores; managing crossing of the different traffic patterns by said routers in the communication network of said different traffic patterns using at each router a variable granularity arbitration process enabling different traffic patterns generated by different IP cores to be treated differently by the routers; and organizing said communication network according to a layered architecture comprising a plurality of network layers including a transport layer and a network layer, wherein said versatile packet format is used in said transport layer, and wherein said variable granularity arbitration process is used in said network layer.