Patent ID: 8825986

Claim:
A network, comprising: a plurality of end nodes; a plurality of switches mappable onto a regular topology by: determining at least one N-dimensional array mapping of said switches; and determining at least one supported connection pattern of said at least one N-dimensional array mapping; determining a routing algorithm for said at least one supported connection pattern; and checking deadlock freedom and connectivity of said routing algorithm for said at least one supported connection pattern of said N-dimensional array mapping; and a plurality of links interconnecting said plurality of end nodes via said plurality of switches; wherein at least one of said switches comprises: at least one input configured to receive data; at least two outputs configured to send data to at least two further switches in said network via at least two of said links each of said links having a known hop value; a direction determinator configured to determine a routing direction for said data from information identifying a relative location of said switch in said network and information identifying a destination of said data; and a distributor configured to process the routing direction and direction information about each link in order to select one of said at least two outputs for outputting said data, wherein said selection prioritizes links for selection which have relatively higher known hop values.