Patent ID: 8514890

Claim:
A method for switching traffic, comprising: issuing to a physical network interface on a physical machine a data unit addressed from a source virtual machine on the physical machine to a destination virtual machine on the same physical machine; if the data unit is a unicast data unit, transmitting a partial portion of the data unit from the physical network interface to an edge switch over a physical link while storing a majority portion of the data unit at the physical machine; if the data unit is a multicast or broadcast data unit, transmitting the entire data unit from the physical network interface to the edge switch; receiving at the physical network interface the transmitted partial portion of the data unit or the transmitted entire data unit from the edge switch over the same physical link; identifying the majority portion of the data unit stored at the physical machine in response to receiving the partial portion of the data unit back from the edge switch; and forwarding, by the physical network interface, the identified majority portion and the partial portion of the data unit to the destination virtual machine.