Patent ID: 9426095
Filing Date: 2016-08-23
CPC Classification: H04L

Claim Text:
1. A method for switching data units, the method comprising: assigning, by a network switch, a unique downlink virtual port to each end-node operating on a physical machine having a physical network input/output (I/O) adapter that is connected to a downlink physical port of the network switch by a physical link; receiving, at the downlink physical port of the network switch, a data unit sent by a given end-node; switching, by the network switch, the received data unit from the physical port to the downlink virtual port assigned to the given end-node; and switching the data unit, by the network switch from the downlink virtual port assigned to the given end-node, to an uplink virtual port of the network switch, switching the data unit from the uplink virtual port to an uplink physical port, for subsequent forwarding of the data unit towards a destination of the data unit, wherein a plurality of uplink virtual ports can share a single uplink physical port.