Patent ID: 8483224

Claim:
A node for a packet communication network, the node comprising: a switch fabric; and first and second ingress modules, the first ingress module being configured: to receive a first stream of packets from a first physical path through the network; to forward a copy of the first stream of packets to an intermodule communication channel; to receive a copy of a second stream of packets from the second ingress module; and when selected to forward packets to the switch fabric, to select packets from the first stream of packets and the copy of the second stream of packets for forwarding as a single packet stream to the switch fabric based on sequence numbers in the packets; the second ingress module being configured: to receive the second stream of packets from a second physical path through the network; to forward the copy of the second stream of packets to the intermodule communication channel; to receive the copy of the first stream of packets from the intermodule communication channel; and when selected to forward packets to the switch fabric, to select packets from the copy of the first stream of packets and the second stream of packets for forwarding as a single packet stream to the switch fabric based on sequence numbers in the packets; the first and second ingress modules being configured such that, at any time, only one of the first and second ingress modules is selected to forward packets to the switch fabric.