Force10 Networks today announced that it has received two additional patents for its innovations in high performance switch and router design that increase system-level reliability. Designed to provide increased fault tolerance and more efficient packet handling, the advances protected by Force10’s most recent patents are crucial to delivering the reliability that high performance networks require. “These improvements in high performance switching and routing enable us to provide a consistently reliable solution for our customers,” said Joel Goergen, chief scientist and vice president of technology at Force10 Networks. “By leveraging our past advances in switch and router technology and continuing our focus on fault tolerance, dependability and scalability, we are able to provide the reliable networking foundation our customers require to ensure their network is a strategic asset.” Together, the two patents protect advances that enable high density switches and routers to more efficiently schedule packet transmissions within the system to avoid creating bottlenecks or unduly delaying traffic. The first patent reduces traffic blocking and maintains port productivity by grouping traffic destined for the same egress port, enabling system-level support for higher traffic flows without compromising performance. The second patent protects an innovation in switch fabric architecture that increases the reliability of the switch or router. By dynamically allocating parallel switch fabrics, this design advance removes a significant impediment to operating at higher throughput. Additionally, this architecture is fault tolerant and can degrade gracefully when one or more switch fabrics go down. These two patents, as well as 16 other patents that protect key innovations in system design and packet processing, underpin the Force10 Reliable Networking product portfolio. Collectively, these advances provide the reliability, network control and scalability organizations need to build a high performance network that meets today’s demands and can adapt to future ones.