Patent ID: 7283464

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: two or more switches including a plurality of local switch nodes, said switches including routing information defining paths for routing associated electronic data between said switch nodes of said switches, said routing information identifying destination switch nodes, local switch nodes associated with primary paths for routing said associated electronic data from said local switch nodes to respective said destination switch nodes, and local switch nodes associated with alternative paths for routing said associated electronic data from said local switch nodes, to respective said destination switch nodes; said two or more switches being coupled with associated couplings between said switch nodes of said switches, such that, in operation, at least one of said two or more switches is configured to alter routing of said associated electronic data between said two or more switches, based at least in part on connectivity of the associated couplings between said two or more switches and on said routing information, wherein said at least one of said switches is configured to alter routing by routing said associated electronic data through a local switch node associated with one of said paths instead of through a local switch node associated with another of said paths; wherein said routing information further includes status information associated with said destination switch nodes indicating a connectivity status between said local switch nodes of said at least one of said switches and said destination switch nodes, and wherein said at least one of said switches is configured to alter routing from at least one of said primary paths to at least one of said alternative paths if said status information indicates at least partially lost connectivity for said one of said primary paths; and wherein said at least one of said two or more switches is configured to restore routing to said one of said primary paths if said status information indicates that connectivity is restored for said one of said primary paths.