Patent ID: 6987735

Claim:
In a networking environment comprising one or more network processing (NP) devices for routing data packets from a source to a destination via a switch fabric, with each network processing device supporting a number of interface ports, a system for ensuring packet routing from one network processing device to a target network processing device via a target interface port, said system comprising: mechanism for tracking operational status of each network processor device and operational status of destination ports supported by each said network processor device in said system, said operational status being maintained at each network processing device; said network processor devices including mechanism for determining the operational status of a target network processing device and target interface port of a current packet to be routed prior to said routing, routing mechanism for routing packets from source NP devices to destination NP devices and destination ports thereof in accordance with an Equal Cost Multi-Path ECMP protocol implementing a next hop routing table for mapping a destination address associated with a packet to be forwarded to one or more next hop options in said networking environment, said routine mechanism routing said current packet to a target network processor device and destination port when said target network processor device and destination ports thereof are determined as operational, and routing packets to another operational NP device and port thereof upon determination of non-operational target network processor device and destination port, whereby proper routing of packets is guaranteed with minimum packet lost.