Patent ID: 8904028

Claim:
A server, comprising: a set of internal ports; at least one external port; and a scheduler; wherein: said set comprises a plurality of internal ports; each of said plurality of internal ports is configured to be coupled to and to communicate with at least one other server and included in a cluster of N interconnected servers to form a router having M router ports corresponding to the total number of external ports of all the servers in the cluster; said at least one external port is configured to couple to and to communicate with a network or a network device to receive one of a plurality of packet flows; said scheduler is configured to switch packets from said at least one external port to at least one of the plurality of internal ports of said set, or from one of the plurality of internal ports of said set to another one of the plurality internal ports of said set, by load balancing a packet flow comprising a plurality of packets; said load balancing comprises randomly selecting one of said plurality of internal ports from said set to transmit each packet of said plurality of packets to a receiving interconnected server coupled to the selected internal port; and the scheduler is further configured to switch at a processing rate that is independent of M.