Patent ID: 7415031

Claim:
A networking apparatus comprising: a switching fabric comprising a plurality of ingress/egress points capable of switching routing paths of packets received through mediums coupled to the ingress/egress points; a first buffering structure comprising a first plurality of storage structures and a first packet diversion logic and a first packet insertion logic, said first plurality of storage structures comprising an ingress diverted packet buffer coupled to said first packet diversion logic and adapted to store diverted ones of ingress packets, an ingress undiverted packet buffer structurally coupled between the first packet diversion logic and the first packet insertion logic and adapted to store undiverted ones of ingress packets, and an ingress inserted packet buffer coupled to said first packet insertion logic and adapted to store insertion ones of ingress packets, wherein said first buffering structure is coupled to a first of said ingress/egress points; and wherein said first packet insertion logic is adapted to receive said undiverted ones of ingress packets.