Patent ID: 7773605

Claim:
A device comprising: a receiver to receive a plurality of resolution request packets from a plurality of communication nodes, respectively, to establish a shortcut virtual channel connection (VCC) from one of the communication nodes to a destination node for a flow of data packets, where each of the plurality of resolution request packets comprises information indicative of a hop count between the respective communication node and the destination node; and at least one processor to establish the shortcut VCC between the destination node and one of the plurality of communication nodes most remote from the destination node based on the information indicative of the hop count, where each of the plurality of communication nodes and said destination node comprises a client, and each of at least two of the communication nodes comprise a server, and where the at least one processor is further to: add, in each of said clients, data about layer 3 source address associated with said data packets to a plurality of address resolution request packets that are transmitted from the plurality of communication nodes in the network, transmit, in each of said clients, said address resolution packet to one of either the destination node or a next communication node, of the plurality of communication nodes toward said destination node, accept, in each of said servers, at least one of said address resolution request packets transmitted, when the server is an egress server, detect, in each of said clients, said address resolution request packets according to the data about said layer 3 source address and a layer 3 destination address indicated in said respective address resolution request packets, detect, in each of said servers, said address resolution request packet from a client, of the clients, of the one of said plurality of communication nodes most remote from said destination on said network according to hop count values indicated in said address resolution request packets, and establish the shortcut VCC in response to validating said detected address resolution request.