Patent ID: 9282061
Filing Date: 2016-03-08
CPC Classification: H04L

Claim Text:
1. A modular network apparatus, comprising: a plurality of pluggable communication modules, each of the pluggable communication modules configured to communicate with a network and having a respective link layer address, the plurality of pluggable communication modules including at least a first pluggable communication module and a second pluggable communication module; a network switching element having a plurality of ports and at least one table for mapping link layer addresses to port identifiers that identify the plurality of ports, each of the pluggable communication modules coupled to a respective one of the plurality of ports, wherein at least one of the ports is coupled to the network, and wherein the network switching element is configured to forward messages between the plurality of ports based on the at least one table; and at least one processing element programmed with control logic coupled to one of the ports of the network switching element and to the plurality of communication modules, the control logic configured to function as a proxy for the first and second pluggable communication modules for resolving network layer addresses into link layer addresses, the control logic configured to originate a first message for resolving a network layer address identifying a remote network device into a link layer address identifying the remote network device, the first message having a header comprising a field for a source address, wherein the control logic is configured to insert a link layer address identifying the first pluggable communication module into the field such that at least one node of the network learns the link layer address identifying the first pluggable communication module based on the first message.