Patent ID: 7983194

Claim:
A switch system to network a plurality of systems, comprising: a first leaf module being a switch and having a plurality of ports divided into internal ports and external ports; a second leaf module being a switch and having a plurality of ports divided into internal ports and external ports, the number of internal ports of the second leaf module being less than the number of internal ports of the first leaf module, the number of external ports of the first leaf module being less than the number of external ports of the second leaf module; a plurality of spine modules being switches, each spine module having a plurality of ports; and a midplane configured to couple the internal ports of the first leaf module to the ports of the spine modules, the midplane configured such that a subset of the internal ports of the first leaf module are always coupled to a known subset of the spine modules; wherein the midplane is further configured to couple the internal ports of the second leaf module to the ports of the spine modules, and the internal ports of the second leaf module are not coupled to the known subset of spine modules.