Patent ID: 8432809

Claim:
A method for communicating between processors of at least two network devices connected within a network, the method comprising: receiving a control packet marked as control traffic by a transmitting network device according to a next-hop addressing scheme, over a network connection from a transmitting data port of the transmitting network device to a receiving data port of a next network device, wherein the transmitting data port and the receiving data port include hardware ports operable to connect the network device and the next network device, the control packet being one of a plurality of control packets used to discover and configure the network device and the next network device as at least part of a logical network switch; identifying the control packet as control traffic at the next network device, based on the marking; determining, at the next network device, whether the control packet is destined for a central processing unit (CPU) of the next network device; providing the control packet to the CPU of the next network device when it is determined that the control packet is destined for the CPU of the next network device; updating a local database of the CPU of the next network device using the control packet, to thereby reflect updating of the next-hop addressing scheme; and forwarding the control packet to an adjacent network device according to the next-hop addressing scheme.