Patent ID: 8149734

Claim:
A method for routing communication signals in a network organized into layers of sub-networks, comprising: receiving in a sub-network, a communication signal from another sub-network, wherein each sub-network of each layer in the network is comprised of a processing node, and wherein the communication signal is received by the processing node in the sub-network; selecting a carrier signal based on a destination address of the communication signal; and outputting the carrier signal to a different sub-network via one of a plurality of ports associated with the carrier signal of the processing node that received the communication signal, wherein each one of the plurality of ports is pre-assigned to one of a plurality of different carrier signals; extracting a first portion address from the destination address; selecting a carrier signal corresponding to a first processing node of an above sub-network if the first portion address does not include an address of the first processing node of the above sub-network; and outputting the carrier signal to the first processing node; selecting a carrier signal corresponding to a second processing node of a below sub-network if the first portion address does include the address of the first processing node of the above sub-network; and outputting the carrier signal to the second processing node.