Patent ID: 8009668

Claim:
A cooperative aggregation of router/switch units, the cooperative aggregation comprising: a plurality of the router/switch units; a switching network including and interconnecting said plurality of router/switch units, wherein the cooperative aggregation is configured to function as a single router from a perspective of an external network device coupled to the cooperative aggregation, wherein each router/switch is configured such that, if the router/switch is an initial router/switch unit that receives a packet from outside the aggregation, then the router/switch is configured to perform routing functions, including modification of the source and destination Media Access Control (MAC) addresses, with respect to the packet, and if the router/switch unit is not the initial router/switch unit in the aggregation to receive the packet, then the router/switch unit is configured to not perform routing functions with respect to the packet; each router/switch sharing information with the other router/switch units of the aggregation using a first protocol such that each router/switch is able to determine whether a destination Internet Protocol (IP) address for a packet is within an IP subnet that is directly or externally connected to one of the router/switches of the aggregation.