A switching system, comprising: a plurality of switches (101; 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 202, 204, 302, 304, 306, 308, 934, 936, 938, 944, 946, 948, 1500, 1620, 1622, 1624, 1626, 1620, 1626, 1900, 2300, 2402, 2404, 2406, 2408, 2800, 2934, 2948, 3200, 3310, 3332, 3404) adapted to transport packets using a first protocol; a processor residing on each of the plurality of switches, wherein the processor is adapted to determine an output port for a packet encapsulated based on the first protocol; and a control module residing on at least one of the plurality of switches, wherein the control module is adapted to: run a control plane on each of the plurality of switches, the control plane having automatic configuration capabilities based on a second protocol to allow the plurality of switches to be inter-connected; and form a logical switch using the plurality of switches, wherein the logical switch is assigned an identifier; and cause one or more of the plurality of switches to join a virtual cluster switch based on the formed logical switch; such that the virtual cluster switch comprises one or more of the plurality of switches configured to be coupled in an arbitrary topology and to share a common address to operate as single logical switch; and the virtual cluster switch appears externally as a single switch, and any port from the plurality of switches is considered one port on the switching system. a plurality of switches (101; 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 202, 204, 302, 304, 306, 308, 934, 936, 938, 944, 946, 948, 1500, 1620, 1622, 1624, 1626, 1620, 1626, 1900, 2300, 2402, 2404, 2406, 2408, 2800, 2934, 2948, 3200, 3310, 3332, 3404) adapted to transport packets using a first protocol; a processor residing on each of the plurality of switches, wherein the processor is adapted to determine an output port for a packet encapsulated based on the first protocol; and a control module residing on at least one of the plurality of switches, wherein the control module is adapted to: run a control plane on each of the plurality of switches, the control plane having automatic configuration capabilities based on a second protocol to allow the plurality of switches to be inter-connected; and form a logical switch using the plurality of switches, wherein the logical switch is assigned an identifier; and cause one or more of the plurality of switches to join a virtual cluster switch based on the formed logical switch; such that run a control plane on each of the plurality of switches, the control plane having automatic configuration capabilities based on a second protocol to allow the plurality of switches to be inter-connected; and form a logical switch using the plurality of switches, wherein the logical switch is assigned an identifier; and cause one or more of the plurality of switches to join a virtual cluster switch based on the formed logical switch; such that the virtual cluster switch comprises one or more of the plurality of switches configured to be coupled in an arbitrary topology and to share a common address to operate as single logical switch; and the virtual cluster switch appears externally as a single switch, and any port from the plurality of switches is considered one port on the switching system. <EOS>