Patent ID: 6850531

Claim:
A multi-service network switch for transferring blocks of data to a particular destination address, the switch comprising: a plurality of interface modules, each interface module comprising: a processor adapted to assign a data path resource to the block of data and adapted to execute program instructions comprising: identifying a characteristic of a connection request, wherein the characteristic is selected from the group consisting of a type of line interface, user login information, telephone number, source address of the data block, and destination address of the data block; selecting a router based on the identified characteristic; and forwarding a data block to the selected router; at least one line interface for receiving the connection request; and a first memory for storing a forwarding table including a list of destination addresses and a best known route to each destination address, wherein the best known route comprises at least one of lowest cost and port location; and a system control module including a second memory for storing a routing table including a list of destination addresses reachable by each of the interface modules and all known routes to each destination address, the routing table being referenced if the particular destination address is not found in the forwarding table; and an interconnection for interconnecting the interface modules and the system control module and for transferring the blocks of data for the particular destination address.