Patent ID: 7839843
Filing Date: 2010-11-23
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method, comprising: receiving a packet via a virtual network device link, the packet comprising a unicast destination address, wherein the virtual network device link couples a first virtual network device sub-unit and a second virtual network device sub-unit, and wherein the first virtual network device sub-unit and the second virtual network device sub-unit are configured to operate as a single virtual network device within a network, and the virtual network device is configured to perform Layer 2 forwarding to forward the packet to one or more network devices within the network; and performing an egress lookup for the packet in response to the receiving the packet, wherein the performing the egress lookup in a lookup table on a first line card comprises allocating a non-primary entry corresponding to a source address of the packet in the lookup table, if an entry corresponding to the source address has not already been allocated, wherein the non-primary entry indicates a second line card.