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Abstract

An information cell transmission method includes receiving flow control cells at a switch from a collection of multicast virtual circuits and aggregating the flow control cells to form an aggregate flow control cell. A network switch includes first and second port circuitry and control circuitry. The first port circuitry is operative to exchange flow control cells on a collection of multicast virtual circuits coupling the switch to destination nodes. The second port circuitry is operative to exchange flow control cells on another virtual circuit that couples the switch to a source node. The control circuitry is operatively couples the collection of multicast virtual circuits to the source virtual circuit via the first and second port circuitry. The control circuitry includes circuitry to receive the flow control cells from the first port circuitry, circuitry to aggregate the first flow control cell data to form an aggregate flow control cell, and circuitry to send the aggregate flow control cell to the second port circuitry for transmission over the source virtual circuit toward the source node.

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First Claim