Patent ID: 7660291
Filing Date: 2010-02-09
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method for processing packets of a virtual local area network (VLAN) in a network switch, wherein the VLAN comprises a plurality of physical local area networks (LANs) and are divided into a plurality of subnets, the method comprising the steps of: receiving a packet through an ingress port of the network switch, wherein the packet is tagged with a VLAN identifier (VID) of the VLAN; reading the VID of the packet; finding a VLAN member according to the VID of the packet, wherein the VLAN member represents all ports dedicated to serving packets of the VLAN in the network switch; finding a forwarding scope according to the ingress port, wherein the ingress port is one of the ports dedicated to serving packets exchanged within a first subnet of the plurality of subnets, and the forwarding scope represents all ports dedicated to serving packets exchanged within the first subnet in the network switch; and executing an AND operation on the VLAN member and the forwarding scope to obtain an intersection of the VLAN member and the forwarding scope; and determining an egress port of the received packet from the intersection of the VLAN member and the forwarding scope.