Patent ID: 8031713

Claim:
A method for managing a plurality of physical network interfaces within a computer system, the method comprising: accepting a data packet at a multi-link interface that manages the plurality of physical network interfaces, from an IP layer of the computer system; selecting, by the multi-link interface, a particular physical network interface from the plurality of physical network interfaces for outputting the data packet; modifying, in response to the selecting, the data packet to include a first IP address of the particular physical network interface, by encapsulating the data packet in a new IP header including the first IP address and a second IP address identifying a destination node that is to receive the data packet, to form a modified data packet; forwarding the modified data packet to the particular physical network interface, by returning the modified data packet to the IP layer, wherein the IP layer routes the modified data packet to the particular physical network interface by resolving the first IP address to obtain the media access control (MAC) address of the particular physical network interface; and transmitting the modified data packet from the particular physical network interface to the destination node.