Patent ID: 9667442
Date: 2017-05-30
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. In a data center with a switch device in communication with a plurality of servers, a method of processing an Ethernet frame comprising: determining, by the switch device, from content in a header of the Ethernet frame received from an initiating system by the switch device, a first of a plurality of ports of the switch device through which to forward the frame to a first server of the plurality of servers; inserting, by the switch device, a value into a VLAN (virtual Local Area Network) tag in the header of the frame before forwarding the frame, said value representing one or more policies to govern the processing of the frame by the first server; forwarding, by the switch device, the frame to the first server; performing, by the first server, a specific action related to processing the frame based on the value inserted into the VLAN tag; modifying, by the first server, the value in the VLAN tag of the header of the frame before returning the frame to the switch device; returning the frame, with the VLAN tag modified by the first server, to the switch device; and forwarding, in response to the switch device receiving the modified VLAN tag from the first server, the frame from the switch device to a second server of the plurality of servers without first returning the frame to the initiating system.