Patent ID: 8103137

Claim:
A connector comprising: a first set of ports; a plurality of leaf switches, wherein each leaf switch of the plurality of leaf switches is connected to each port of the first set of ports; a second set of ports; at least one spine switch, wherein each port of the second set of ports is connected to a spine switch of the at least one spine switch, and wherein the plurality of leaf switches comprises r leaf switches, the first set of ports comprises n ports, the second set of ports comprises p ports, the at least one spine switch comprises r*n/p spine switches, and a p/r fraction of ports of the first set of ports are coupled to each port of the second set of ports; and an optical cluster fabric (OCF) comprising a plurality of channel sets coupled between the first set of ports and the second set of ports, wherein the OCF comprises a plurality of fiber optic lines forming the plurality of channel sets, wherein each channel set of the plurality of channel sets is connected between one port of the first set of ports and at least two ports of the second set of ports, wherein the first set of ports presents grouped channels for connection to a first set of switches, wherein the second set of ports presents the grouped channels for connection to a second set of switches, wherein each port of the first and second set of ports comprises a plurality of channels, wherein each channel comprises a plurality of fiber optic connections.