Patent ID: 6584106
Filing Date: 2003-06-24
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A network switching system comprisingmultiple ports including at least one backbone port for providing data communications with backbone network nodes, and a decision making engine responsive to a received data packet to control forwarding the received data packet to a transmit port, the decision making engine including a destination address logic circuit for comparing destination information of the received data packet with a predetermined set of address data, the decision making engine being configured for forwarding the received data packet to the at least one backbone port if the destination information of the received data packet is not found in the predetermined set of address data, wherein the decision making engine further comprises a source address logic circuit for comparing source address information of the received data packet with the predetermined set of address data, the source address logic circuit is operable in a regular mode to add address information of the received data packet to the predetermined set of address data if the source address information of the received data packet is not found in the predetermined set of address data, and the source address logic circuit is further operable in a backbone mode to prevent the address information of a data packet received from the at least one backbone port from being added to the predetermined set of address data.