Patent ID: 7649885

Claim:
A network device, comprising: a plurality of ports each configured to receive data packets or to transmit data packets from the network device; one or more memories; a plurality of integrated port controllers, each integrated port controller circuit configured to receive data packets from one or more ports from the plurality of ports and to forward data packets to one or more ports from the plurality of ports; a backplane; and an adapter coupled to the plurality of integrated port controllers and to the backplane; wherein each integrated port controller is configured to receive a data packet received by the network device via a port from the plurality of ports, determine forwarding information by performing one or more lookups in the one or more memories using information extracted from a header portion of the received packet, the forwarding information indicative of how the received data packet is to be forwarded in the network device, and forward the data packet and the forwarding information to the adapter coupled to the integrated port controller; wherein the adapter is configured to receive a data packet and forwarding information for the data packet from an integrated port controller from the plurality of integrated port controllers, and based upon the forwarding information, forward the data packet received by the adapter from the integrated port controller either to another integrated port controller coupled to the adapter or to the backplane.