Patent ID: 7251242

Claim:
A network node of a packet-oriented communication network, the communication network having a plurality of nodes interconnected according to the topology of the network in such a way that a plurality of paths exist between the network nodes, comprising: at least one distribution fan containing the network node derived from the network topology for a specific communication relation between a first network node configured as a transmitting node and a second network node configured as a receiving node and comprising all the network nodes and routes that can be used for distributed transmission of traffic streams assigned to the communication relation in the communication network; and a branch pattern defined for the network node, onto which the distribution fan is mapped and a group of outgoing ports of the network node is determined, to which the traffic streams assigned to the distribution fan are distributed, the routes assigned to the ports leading to at least two different adjacent network nodes, wherein at least when at least one traffic stream is currently transmitted in a distributed manner by the network node according to the branch pattern, the network node comprises at least one queuing system for the branch pattern that comprises at least one queue.