Patent ID: 7378938

Claim:
A network, comprising: an input stage including r 1 input switches, each including n 1 inlet links; an output stage including r 2 output switches, each including n 2 outlet links; a middle stage including m middle switches, each of the m middle switches including r 1 first internal links connected to respective ones of the r 1 input switches, each of the m middle switches further including r 2 second internal links connected to respective ones of the r 2 output switches; and a controller connected to the input stage, the output stage, and the middle stage, the controller being configured to set up multicast connections between the input stage and the output stage, such that each of the multicast connections is fanned out from the input stage into at most x of the m middle switches, wherein x<in, and x is defined based on m, wherein m=x*n 1 +n 2 −1.