Abstract: A packet routing system is disclosed that allows for efficient transfers of IP streams from router to router with use of supertrunking. The router that receives an IP stream set for transmission on a supertrunk, individually inputs the IP packets, determines the logical output port corresponding to the IP stream, assigns each IP packet to a physical output port within the logical output port with use of a load balancing function, encapsulates each IP packet within a supertrunk header comprising an IP stream identifier and a packet sequence identifier and an IP header that has identical source and destination addresses as the original IP packet, and forwards the encapsulated packets to the receiving router via a plurality of physical links. The router that receives the encapsulated IP packets then re-orders the packets into the proper order with use of a sorting algorithm, removes the IP and supertrunk headers, and outputs an IP stream similar to that input to the original router.

Abstract: A scheduling apparatus, that can be used within a supertrunking capable Internet Protocol (IP) Forwarding (IPF) node, allows for efficient scheduling of packets for servicing after the packets are sorted into their proper order. The scheduling apparatus has a point and serve mechanism, a round-robin mechanism, and a starvation mechanism, and is to be used in situations where an IPF node is sorting and outputting multiple numbers of data streams. The point and serve mechanism directs two supertrunk pointers to the front packets of the particular data streams that the incoming packet segments correspond. The round-robin mechanism rotates a round-robin pointer between the front packets corresponding to all the different data streams. The starvation mechanism flags a data stream as starving if no packets have been scheduled after a predetermined number of times in which the round-robin pointer has been directed at the particular stream.

Abstract: A packet routing system is disclosed that allows for efficient transfer of data flows from router to router with use of supertrunking. The router that receives a data flow inputs the packets of the data flow, determines the logical output port corresponding to the data flow, assigns the entire data flow to a physical output port within the logical output port with use of a load balancing function, encapsulates each packet within a Packet Forwarding Header (PFH) and a Rotator Information Unit (RIU) header that identifies the assigned physical output port, and outputs the encapsulated packets of the data flow to the assigned physical output port. The assigned physical output port removes the PFH and the RIU header from each packet and outputs the packets to a physical link. The router that receives the packets can treat the packets of the particular data flow like typical packets since all the packets of the same data flow traverse the same physical link resulting in no mis-ordering of packets.