Consider the links sending traffic to a switch (the opposite direction is identical). Typically, each individual link sees very little traffic or traffic is very bursty. We ask the question -- is it possible to combine all the traffic coming along N links into k < N links and thus use only k interfaces on the switch? By doing this we can (a) reduce the number of interfaces on a switch resulting in significant energy savings and (b) power off intefaces and line cards during low loads without incurring packet loss.
Our design of the merge network is very low energy (please refer to the previous publications) and as a result can be ignored.
We hide the use of traffic merging by including a software layer in the switch. This layer implements virtual ports. Thus, if N links are merged to k, this software layer de-multiplexes packets in the switch and feeds them correctly to N virtual ports so that protocols are unaffected.