Patent ID: 7986693

Claim:
A network comprising: a plurality of port interface controllers operatively interconnected by a switching mechanism; each of said port interface controllers including: an Ethernet interface for receiving an inbound packet from a host having a data link layer host address; and a plurality of controller elements including: a first of said elements receiving said packet from said interface and comparing said address with other data link layer host addresses stored in another of said controller elements and a second of said elements comparing said packet to a target pattern and thereafter forwarding said packet to a switching mechanism interfacing controller which, in turn, forwards said packet to said switching mechanism; and said switching mechanism transmitting said packet to another one of said port interface controllers receiving said packet from said switching mechanism in a controller element of said another one of said port interface controllers corresponding to said switching mechanism interfacing controller and, after processing in yet another of said controller elements, if said packet is not discarded by said yet another controller element, forwarding said packet as an outgoing packet to either: a unicast link layer destination address of another host, or a multicast link layer destination address of a plurality of hosts other than said host; or un-determined hosts, excluding said host, if said outgoing packet is a broadcast packet.