Data striping based switching system

1. A switching system comprising:

M receive interfaces each of which receive a data stream, where M is greater than or equal to 1 and is an integer, each receive interface implementing space division, at least a first receive interface of the M receive interfaces produces N stripes of the data stream, where N is greater than or equal to 2 and is an integer;

N switch fabrics, each of which implement hybrid space/time division, each fabric implementing space division on the stripes the fabric receives and time division multiplexing on the data that arrives at the fabric, at least a first and second of the N switch fabrics each receive 1 of the N stripes of the data stream from the first of the M receive interfaces, each switch fabric connected to at least one of the M receive interfaces; and

O transmit interfaces, where O is greater than or equal to 1 and is an integer, each transmit interface implementing space division, at least a first of the O transmit interfaces reconstructing the data stream from the stripes of the data stream received by the first and second of the N switch fabrics, each transmit interface connected to at least 2 of the N switch fabrics, the M receive interfaces are connected to the N switch fabrics and produce N stripes which are provided to the N switch fabrics, respectively, each of the M receive interfaces connected to each of the N switch fabrics, each of the O transmit interfaces are connected with each of the N switch fabrics and receive the N stripes from the N switch fabrics and reconstruct the respective data streams, there are N*M stripes provided between each of the receive interfaces and the switch fabrics, and each of the switch fabrics and the transmit interfaces, each fabric has M read and write queues associated with each receive interface and transmit interface, the first receive interface produces a parity stripe, and including an additional switch fabric (N+1) which receives the parity stripe, said additional switch fabric connected to the first receive interface so if 1 of the N+1 switch fabrics fail, the data stream can still be reconstructed with the parity stripe on the first transmit interface.

2. A system as described in claim 1 wherein O=M.

3. A switching system operating at capacity N comprising:

M receive interfaces each of which receive data streams, where M is greater than or equal to 2 and is an integer, each receive interface implementing space division, at least a first receive interface of the M receive interfaces produces S stripes and a parity stripe of a data stream the first receive interface receives, where S is greater than or equal to 3 and is an integer;

N distributed switch fabrics, each of which implement hybrid space/time division, each fabric implementing space division on the stripes the fabric receives and time division multiplexing on the data that arrives at the fabric, where N is greater than or equal to 3 and is an integer, at least a first, second and third of the N switch fabrics each receive 1 of the S stripes of the data stream from the first of the M receive interfaces, each switch fabric connected to at least one of the M receive interfaces, each switch fabric operating at C/N bandwidth;

O transmit interfaces, where O is greater than or equal to 2 and is an integer, each transmit interface implementing space division, at least a first of the O transmit interfaces reconstructing the data stream from the S stripes of the data stream received by the first and second of the N switch fabrics, each transmit interface connected to the N switch fabrics; and

an additional switch fabric (N+1) which receives the parity stripe, said third switch fabric connected to the first receive interface so if 1 of the N+1 switch fabrics fail, the data stream can still be reconstructed with the parity stripe on the first transmit interface.

4. A system as described in claim 3 wherein O=M and S equals N.

5. A system as described in claim 4 wherein the M receive interfaces are connected to the N switch fabrics and produce N stripes which are provided to the N switch fabrics, respectively, each of the M receive interfaces connected to each of the N switch fabrics.

6. A system as described in claim 5 wherein each of the O transmit interfaces are connected with each of the N switch fabrics and receive the N stripes from the N switch fabrics and reconstruct the respective data streams.

7. A system as described in claim 6 wherein there are N*M stripes provided between each of the receive interfaces and the switch fabrics, and each of the switch fabrics and the transmit interfaces.

8. A system as described in claim 7 wherein each fabric has M read and write queues associated with each receive interface and transmit interface.

9. A system as described in claim 8 wherein the distributed switch fabrics implement hybrid space/time division and the transmit and receive interfaces implement space division.

10. A method for switching comprising the steps of:

receiving a data stream at a receive interface implementing space division;

striping the data stream into N stripes, where N is greater than or equal to 3 and is an integer, with the receive interface;

striping a parity stripe;

providing the N stripes to N switch fabrics implementing hybrid space/time division;

providing the parity stripe to an NH switch fabric;

transmitting the N stripes to a transmit interface implementing space division which reconstructs the data stream from the stripes and transmits non-stripe data on its output ports; and

transmitting the parity stripe to the transmit interface so if any one of the other N switch fabrics fail, the data stream can still be reconstructed with the parity stripe.

11. A method as described in claim 10 wherein the striping step includes the step of producing N stripes from each data stream such that any X stripes of the N stripes, where X is less than or equal to N and is an integer, can reconstruct the data stream from which the X stripes arose.