Patent ID: 7756016

Claim:
An ingress and egress channel for a networking system, comprising: a) a framer to receive an ingress frame and send an egress frame, said framer having separate outputs for separate ingress signals within said ingress frame, said framer having separate inputs for separate egress signals within said egress frame; b) separate ingress multiplexers for each of said outputs, each ingress multiplexer having a first input coupled to a different one of said outputs; c) separate egress multiplexers for each of said inputs of said framer, each egress multiplexer having an output coupled to a different one of said inputs of said framer, each egress multiplexer having inputs to receive ingress signals from other ingress and egress channels within said networking system: and, d) separate additional multiplexers for each second input of said ingress multiplexers, each additional multiplexer having an output coupled to a different ingress multiplexer's second input, each additional multiplexer having inputs to receive additional ingress signals received by said networking system that are the same as said ingress signals.