Patent ID: 11968176
Assignee: nan
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  G | IPC G  H

Claim 17:
18. A network switching device comprising:
a plurality of hardware ports;
a data plane to implement forwarding rules to forward packets between the plurality of hardware ports;
one or more processing devices;
memory coupled to the one or more processing devices; and
one or more data storage mediums coupled to the one or more processing devices, the one or more data storage mediums including instructions which, when executed by the one or more processing devices, cause the one or more processing devices to:
assign a plurality of hardware ports to a plurality of VLANs, wherein hardware ports are assigned to at least two of the plurality of VLANs, and none of the plurality of hardware ports are concurrently assigned to multiple VLANs of the plurality of VLANs;
load rules for forwarding packets between the plurality of hardware ports into a data plane for the network switching device, wherein the rules direct the data plane to forward only between hardware ports in a common VLAN of the plurality of VLANs; and
assure that a packet received at any hardware port assigned to a first VLAN of the plurality of VLANs is not sent in legible form from any hardware port assigned to a second VLAN of the plurality of VLANs if an error causes the data plane to forward or request forwarding the packet to any hardware port assigned to a second VLAN of the plurality of VLANs.