Patent ID: 7609689

Claim:
A method for use by an intermediate network device having a plurality of interfaces for forwarding network packets among the interfaces, one or more of the interfaces being associated with one or more Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) designations, the method comprising the steps of: mapping, by a routing processor, each VLAN designation to an Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) site identifier in a table; receiving, on an inbound interface, a packet having an IPv6 site-local unicast destination address in a field of a header; identifying the VLAN designation associated with the received packet; utilizing the identified VLAN designation to retrieve the IPv6 site identifier to which the VLAN designation is mapped; creating a modified destination address by embedding the retrieved IPv6 site identifier into the IPv6 site-local unicast destination address; and rendering a forwarding decision for the received packet based on the modified destination address.