Patent ID: 7362750

Claim:
A network switching module comprising: (i) a plurality of ports for the reception and forwarding of addressed data packets; (ii) a look-up engine for performing a look-up on selected address data in a received addressed data packet to obtain forwarding data including a port number; (iii) a switching facility; (iv) a multiplicity of output mesh interfaces for the transmission of addressed data packets to at least one other switching module, said switching facility directing an addressed data packet to a selected one of said output mesh interfaces in dependence on the said port number; (v) a multiplicity of input mesh interfaces for the reception of addressed data packets from at least said other switching module; (vi) means coupling said input mesh interfaces to at least some of said ports; and (vii) programmable registers for providing at least some of the ports with selectable port numbers so that the mapping of ports to meshes can be altered.