Interconnect fabric providing connectivity between an input and arbitrary output (s) of a group of outputs

Abstract From the Canadian patent

This invention is an inventive N input by L output interconnect fabric. In operation, packets comprising an information field and an address are received at the N inputs to the interconnect fabric and the address in, each packet is mapped to a group of outputs rather than to any particular, output. Each packet is then routed to any available one of the interconnect fabric outputs associated with the group to which the packet is mapped. If a number of packets destined for the same group simultaneously arrive at the interconnect fabric inputs and the group to which they are all destined does not comprise enough outputs to accept them then all packets in excess, of the number that the destined …