Patent ID: 9397942
Filing Date: 2016-07-19
CPC Classification: G06F,H04L

Claim Text:
1. A method for forwarding a packet, comprising: receiving an Ethernet packet; searching Layer 2 forwarding entries in a Layer 2 forwarding table according to a source Media Access Control (MAC) address of the Ethernet packet; replacing the source MAC address of the Ethernet packet with a mapped virtual MAC address obtained from a Layer 2 forwarding entry matching the source MAC address of the Ethernet packet; searching in the Layer 2 forwarding table according to a destination MAC address of the Ethernet packet received, in response to determining that a Layer 2 forwarding entry matching the destination MAC address of the Ethernet packet does not include a MAC address mapped to the destination MAC address, performing Very Large Layer 2(VLL2) network protocol encapsulation on the Ethernet packet according to an egress port in the Layer 2 forwarding entry matching the destination MAC address, and sending the Ethernet packet encapsulated with a VLL2 network protocol header via the egress port.