Patent ID: 8730967

Claim:
A network switch device for use in a computer network, the switch device comprising: a plurality of network interfaces configured to receive and transmit packet based communications within a computer network, the plurality of network interfaces including a first network interface; a virtual router classification engine configured to generate a search key for a packet received at the first network interface using (i) header information obtained from one or more fields of a header of the packet and (ii) additional information associated with the packet, select a rule corresponding to the generated search key, and apply an action associated with the selected rule to the packet, wherein the virtual router classification engine is configured to apply an action associated with the selected rule to the packet at least by assigning a virtual router identifier to the packet; and a packet forwarding engine configured to (i) serve a plurality of organizations forming the computer network, the plurality of organizations including a first organization, and (ii) segregate packet communications within the network switch device of the first organization from packet communications traffic within the network switch device of other organizations in the plurality of organizations based on the virtual router identifier assigned by the virtual router classification engine.