Patent ID: 8493974

Claim:
A protocol-independent switch system, comprising: a protocol-independent switch fabric; at least two line modules, the line modules comprising at least one ingress interface and at least one egress interface, and each line module comprising a switch fabric interface coupled to the protocol-independent switch fabric; wherein the line modules are configured to add a local header to data entering the ingress interface to form a wrapped packet, wherein the data includes packets having a native protocol formats in at least two of layer-1 data types, layer-2 data types, and layer-3 data types and the local header contains sufficient information to enable a plurality of the wrapped packets containing the layer-1 data types, layer-2 data types, and layer-3 data types to be switched across the protocol-independent switch fabric, wherein the data within the wrapped packets is preserved in its native protocol format; and wherein the line modules are configured to remove the local header before the data exits the egress interface.