Patent ID: 7586909

Claim:
A method for routing segments of data belonging to a class of a set of one or more classes, from a first input module in an input stage to a plurality of output modules in an output stage, via a plurality of intermediate stage modules, said first input module having a data path to each of said intermediate stage modules and each of said intermediate stage modules having a data path to at least one of said output modules, an intermediate stage module including a multicast replicator for forwarding a data segment received from an input module to more than one of said output modules, the method comprising the steps of said first input module: (a) determining, in dependence upon a measure of relative channel loading of routes from said first input module to said output stage via said data paths, due to data of said class that originated from said first input module during a given prior time period, a given intermediate stage module of said intermediate stage modules through which to send a given next data segment of said class to be sent by said first input module; and (b) sending said given next data segment on the data path to said given intermediate stage module, wherein: the data originating from said first input module during said given prior time period includes a prior data segment of said class replicated by said multicast replicator for forwarding to more than one of said output modules, and the channel loading due to said prior data segment is reflected in said measure of relative channel loading of each of the routes taken by said prior data segment from said first input module to modules in said output stage.