METHOD FOR ADAPTIVE ROUTING IN HIERARCHICAL NETWORKS

The invention relates to a method for routing packets in a hierarchical network formed by a plurality of routers, each router including local ports and global ports and each port comprising a plurality of virtual channels. The routers form groups and the different routers from a single group are interconnected by means of a connection topology using local links joining pairs of local ports, and the different groups are interconnected by means of a connection topology using global links joining pairs of global ports. The method is configured to use hops through said links according to minimal and non-minimal routes. The hops that involve non-minimal routes can be made via both global and local links. The number of virtual channels required in each local and global port is determined simply by the length of a maximum allowed route that does not use local misrouting. For this purpose, a total order is used on the path of the virtual channels, which is violated when a local misrouting occurs.