Fused three-stage networks forming a global contiguous network

A contiguous network comprising:

• a plurality of access nodes arranged into a plurality of access groups;
• and
• a plurality of distributors arranged into a plurality of distributor groups, wherein:
• each pair of distributor groups shares a common distributor;
• and
• each access node of the plurality of access nodes has a dual channel to each distributor of a respective distributor group so that each access group and a respective distributor group form a respective three-stage network, yielding a plurality of mutually fused three-stage networks;
• said each distributor couples to a respective hardware processor configured to execute instructions for establishing a path from said each access node connecting to said each distributor to each other access node connecting to said each distributor;
• thereby, each distributor of the plurality of distributors is common in two three-stage networks of the formed plurality of three-stage networks, creating a path from each access node to each other node of the plurality of access nodes traversing only one distributor.

A method of data switching comprising:

• arranging a plurality of access nodes into a plurality of access groups, each access group comprising a respective set of access nodes;
• arranging a plurality of distributors into a plurality of distributor groups, each distributor group comprising a predetermined number of distributors with distributor groups of each pair of distributor groups sharing one common distributor;
• forming a plurality of three-stage networks, each three-stage network comprising:
• a respective distributor group;
• and
• a respective access group, each access node of said respective access group having
• a dual channel to each distributor of said respective set of distributors;
• and
• configuring a hardware processor coupled to said each distributor to execute instructions for establishing a path from said each access node to each other access node connecting to said each distributor;
• thereby, each distributor of the plurality of distributors is common in two three-stage networks of the plurality of three-stage networks, thus creating a path from each access node to each other node of the plurality of access nodes traversing only one distributor.