Scalable Multi-Hop Mesh Packet Switch Fabric

A networking cluster comprising:

• a first networking device, coupled to receive first network traffic on a first plurality of cards, having a first multi-hop mesh fabric that transports the network traffic between the first plurality of cards;
• a second networking device, coupled to receive second network traffic on a second plurality of cards, having a second multi-hop mesh fabric that transports the network traffic between the second plurality of cards;
• a first extension card, coupled within the first networking device, having a third multi-hop mesh fabric that transports the first network traffic between the first networking device and the second networking device;
• and
• a second extension card, coupled within the second networking device, having a fourth multi-hop mesh fabric that transports the second network traffic between the first networking device and the second networking device.

A method for transporting network traffic from a source node to a destination node within a mesh fabric, the method comprising:

• receiving traffic at a source node from a card within a networking device;
• scheduling a transmission of a first portion of the traffic on a first path within the mesh fabric and a second portion of the traffic on a second path within the mesh fabric, the first and second paths constituting an intermediary node;
• transmitting the first and second portions of the traffic on the first and second paths, respectively, within the mesh fabric;
• receiving the first and second portions of the traffic on the destination node from the first and second paths;
• reassembling the traffic from the first and second portions of the traffic received from the first and second paths;
• and
• transmitting the reassembled traffic from the destination node.

A multi-hop mesh fabric comprising:

• a first node that receives traffic outside of the mesh fabric and transmits a first portion of the traffic onto a single-hop path and a second portion of the traffic on a multi-hop path;
• an intermediary node, coupled within the multi-hop path, that transports the second portion of the traffic along the multi-hop path;
• a second node, coupled to the single-hop path and the multi-hop path, that receives the first portion of the traffic from the first node and the second portion of the traffic from the intermediary node;
• and
• a scheduler circuit, coupled within the first node, that determines an allocation of the first portion of transmitted traffic on the single-hop path and the second portion of transmitted traffic on the multi-hop path.