Patent ID: 7660239

Claim:
A method of transferring data via a switch fabric, comprising: for each unit of data to be transferred, selecting one of a plurality of ingress links from a fabric access node to the switch fabric to transfer the unit of data; in the event that one or more of the plurality of ingress links become unavailable, such that one or more remaining ingress links remain available for transferring data, transferring a subsequently received unit of data via one of the remaining ingress links; wherein an ingress link included in the plurality of ingress links is determined to be unavailable if a control information included by the switch fabric in a unit of data received from the switch fabric via an egress link with which the ingress link is associated indicates that a failure associated with the egress link associated with the ingress link has been detected by the switch fabric; and wherein the egress link is associated with the ingress link by virtue of being associated with a same fabric access node as the ingress link; and wherein the switch fabric is configured to detect the failure associated with the ingress link; set an internal state data of the switch plane to reflect the detected failure; and include the control information in the unit of data prior to sending the unit of data out of the switch fabric via the egress link with which the ingress link is associated.