Patent ID: 6996058
Filing Date: 2006-02-07
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method in a switch for selecting a destination port for data, the destination port being connected by a link to a port of another switch, the method comprising: providing a designation that a first port and second port are equivalent; receiving data that designates that the first port is to be the destination port for the received data, wherein said destination port is assigned a virtual address for said received data; and when the first port is currently unavailable, selecting the second port as the destination port for the received data based on the provided designation that the first port and the second port are equivalent, wherein the received data designates the first port to be the destination port based on a mapping of a virtual address of the received data to the first port, further wherein the first or second port can be equivalent to multiple other ports and the multiple other ports have associated priorities and the second port is selected as the destination port when it has a priority that is higher than another of the multiple ports that are available.