DATA STORAGE SYSTEM

A method is provided for transmitting user data from a selected one of a plurality of data pipes. The method includes having a ring manager select one of the data pipes from a pool of the data pipes for transmission of the user data. The data is transmitted from the selected one of the data pipes at least one packet switching network. The data pipe detects whether there was an error in the transmission. If there an error detected, the data pipe generates an error interrupt for the ring manager. The ring manager detects the error interrupt and generates an error interrupt for a CPU. The ring manager removes the selected one of the data pipes from the pool of data pipes for a predetermined period of time while the ring manager continues to work on other tasks until the time has expired. During pipe retirement, the physical pipe removed from the pool of pipes is disabled and the router will then direct orphan packets to the error ring. When the time has expired, the ring manager returns the selected data pipe to the pool of available data pipes.