Patent ID: 7535895

Claim:
A network switch comprising: a plurality of link interfaces; a plurality of processing engines; a switch fabric coupled to said plurality of processing engines; and a switch coupling said plurality of link interfaces to said plurality of processing engines, wherein said switch is configured to: map data from at least one time slot in a set of time slots from a link interface in said plurality of link interfaces to at least one outgoing set of time slots; and forward each outgoing set of time slots in said at least one outgoing set of time slots to a processing engine in said plurality of processing engines, wherein said switch is configured to map data in response to mapping information maintained in said network switch, wherein said mapping information identifies a time slot in an outgoing set of time slots in said at least one outgoing set of time slots for each time slot in said set of time slots; and said network switch is configured to modify said mapping information in response to a failure of at least one link interface in said plurality of link interfaces.