Patent ID: 6888831

Claim:
A distributed method of establishing a path in a multi-dimensional computer network comprising a plurality of nodes for transmitting isochronous data from a source node to a destination node, the method comprising the steps of: (a) injecting a request packet into the network, the request packet specifying a request to transmit the isochronous data from one of a plurality of source nodes; (b) routing the request packet to at least one of the plurality of source nodes; (c) determining whether the source node comprises sufficient resources to support transmitting the isochronous data; (d) if the source node comprises sufficient resources to support transmitting the isochronous data, reserving resources within the source node to support transmitting the isochronous data, and transmitting an acknowledge (ack) packet from the source node to a first neighboring node; (e) determining whether the first neighboring node comprises sufficient resources to support transmitting the isochronous data; (f) if the first neighboring node comprises sufficient resources to support transmitting the isochronous data, reserving resources within the first neighboring node to support transmitting the isochronous data, and transmitting the ack packet from the first neighboring node to a node adjacent the first neighboring node; and (g) if the first neighboring node does not comprise sufficient resources to support transmitting the isochronous data: transmitting a negative-acknowledge (nack) packet from the first neighboring node to the source node; and transmitting the ack packet from the source node to a second neighboring node.