Patent ID: 8811391

Claim:
A device comprising: a switch fabric including: a physical switch plane including: a group of switch ports, the group of switch ports including a first quantity of switch ports, the physical switch plane implementing a group of virtual switch planes, and the group of virtual switch planes including a second quantity of virtual switch planes, and the switch fabric connecting each switch port, of the group of switch ports, to one of a group of interface cards, the group of interface cards including a third quantity of interface cards, each interface card, of the group of interface cards, including the second quantity of connections to the physical switch plane, and the third quantity being less than the first quantity; and a group of queues, each virtual switch plane, of the group of virtual switch planes, being associated with a respective queue of the group of queues, and a received data unit, determined to be associated with a virtual switch plane, of the group of virtual switch planes, being buffered in the respective queue associated with the virtual switch plane.