Spraying for unequal link connections in an internal switch fabric

A routing system comprising:

• a plurality of fabric endpoints;
• and
• a switching fabric comprising a fabric plane to switch cells among the pluraliy of fabric endpoints,
• wherein the fabric plane includes two fabric cores and one or more inter-core links connecting the fabric cores,
• wherein each fabric core is configured to select an output port of the fabric core to which to route a received cell of the cells based on (i) an input port of the fabric core on which the received cell was received and (ii) a destination fabric endpoint for the received cell, at least a portion of the selected output ports being connected to the inter-core links, and switch the received cell to the selected output port,
• wherein two fabric endpoints of the plurality of fabric endpoints collectively have an odd number of connections to the fabric plane,
• wherein the two fabric endpoints share a link to each of the two fabric cores, and
• wherein one of the inter-core links is associated in a routing table to the shared link.

A method of routing cells in a router with a plurality of fabric endpoints and a switching fabric comprising a fabric plane to switch cells among the plurality of fabric endpoints, wherein the switch fabric plane includes two fabric cores and one or more inter-core links connecting the fabric cores, the method comprising:

• receiving cells at a plurality of input ports;
• selecting, by a fabric core of the fabric cores, an output port of the fabric core to route a received cell of the cells based on (i) an input port of the fabric core on which the received cell was received and (ii) a destination fabric endpoint for the received cell, at least a portion of the selected output ports being connected to the inter-core links;
• and
• switching, by the fabric core, the received cell to the selected output port,
• wherein each fabric core includes a routing table that maps an input port to one or more output ports to route the received cell based on (i) an input port of the fabric core on which the received cell was received and (ii) a destination fabric endpoint for the cell, wherein selecting the output port of the fabric core includes selecting the one of the one or more output ports based on the routing table,
• wherein at least a portion of the input ports are mapped to at least two output ports, and
• wherein for the portion of the input ports that are mapped to at least two of the output ports, the routing table specifies a spray ratio to use to select one of the at least two output ports.

A method of routing cells in a router with a plurality of fabric endpoints and a switching fabric comprising a fabric plane to switch cells among the plurality of fabric endpoints, wherein the switch fabric plane includes two fabric cores and one or more inter-core links connecting the fabric cores, the method comprising:

• receiving cells at a plurality of input ports;
• selecting, by a fabric core of the fabric cores, an output port of the fabric core to route a received cell of the cells based on (i) an input port of the fabric core on which the received cell was received and (ii) a destination fabric endpoint for the received cell, at least a portion of the selected output ports being connected to the inter-core links;
• and
• switching, by the fabric core, the received cell to the selected output port,
• wherein two fabric endpoints of the plurality of fabric endpoints have collectively an odd number of connections to the fabric plane,
• wherein the two fabric endpoints share a link to each of the two fabric cores, and
• wherein one of the inter-core links is associated in a routing table to the shared link, wherein selecting the one of the output ports includes selecting one of the output ports associated with the one of the inter-core links for the cells received from one of the input ports associated with the shared link.

A network device comprising:

• a plurality of line cards collectively having a plurality of fabric endpoints;
• a fabric switch card coupled to the line cards and comprising a fabric plane to switch cells among the plurality of fabric endpoints,
• wherein the fabric plane includes two fabric cores and one or more inter-core links connecting the fabric cores,
• wherein each fabric core is configured to select an output port of the fabric core to route a received cell of the cells based on (i) an input port of the fabric core on which the received cell was received and (ii) a destination fabric endpoint for the received cell, at least a portion of the selected output ports being connected to the inter-core links, and switch the received cell to the selected output port,
• wherein each fabric core includes a routing table that maps an input port to one or more output ports to route the received cell based on (i) an input port of the fabric core on which the received cell was received and (ii) a destination fabric endpoint for the cell,
• wherein at least a portion of the input ports are mapped to at least two output ports, and
• wherein for the portion of the input ports that are mapped to at least two of the output ports, the routing table specifies a spray ratio to use to select one of the at least two output ports.

A network device comprising:

• a plurality of line cards collectively having a plurality of fabric endpoints;
• a fabric switch card coupled to the line cards and comprising a fabric plane to switch cells among the plurality of fabric endpoints,
• wherein the fabric plane includes two fabric cores and one or more inter-core links connecting the fabric cores,
• wherein each fabric core is configured to select an output port of the fabric core to route a received cell of the cells based on (i) an input port of the fabric core on which the received cell was received and (ii) a destination fabric endpoint for the received cell, at least a portion of the selected output ports being connected to the inter-core links, and switch the received cell to the selected output port,
• wherein two fabric endpoints of the plurality of fabric endpoints collectively have an odd number of connections to the fabric plane,
• wherein the two fabric endpoints share a link to each of the two fabric cores, and
• wherein one of the inter-core links is associated in a routing table to the shared link.