Patent ID: 7986691

Claim:
A router comprising: a plurality of traffic manager ingress and egress pairs; a first communication channel between each traffic manager ingress and egress pair; a switch fabric forming a second communication channel from each traffic manager ingress, each traffic manager ingress configured to send cells of a data packet through the switch fabric to a selected traffic manager egress configured to receive cells of the data packet through the switch fabric; the switch fabric comprising at least two stages, each stage comprising a plurality of buffers interconnected by a plurality of links; wherein each cell of the data packet traverses at least one buffer in each stage upon being sent through the switch fabric; the traffic manager egress configured to send a control packet to a selected traffic manager ingress by sending the control packet to the traffic manager ingress in the same pair via the first communication channel; said traffic manager ingress configured to thereafter send the control packet to the traffic manager egress corresponding to the selected traffic manager ingress by way of the switch fabric in order to send the packet to a corresponding traffic manager egress, the corresponding traffic manager egress configured to send the control packet to the selected traffic manager ingress via the first communication channel.