Patent ID: 7688818

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving traffic through a first interface in a first group of interfaces at a switch, the first group of interfaces associated with a first virtual network and coupled to a switch fabric in the switch; determining that the traffic is destined for a destination associated with a second virtual network; forwarding the traffic from the switch fabric through a second interface in the first group of interfaces to a third interface in a second group of interfaces at the switch, the second group of interfaces associated with the second virtual network and coupled to the switch fabric in the switch, wherein the switch fabric does not transport the traffic from the second interface to the third interface; filtering the traffic that is received at the third interface in the second group of interfaces, wherein filtering the traffic comprises at least one of: (1) determining whether a traffic type associated with the traffic represents a specified traffic type, and (2) determining whether a port associated with the traffic represents a specified port; and communicating the filtered traffic from the switch fabric towards the destination through a fourth interface in the second group of interfaces; wherein the specified traffic type comprises Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) broadcast traffic, multicast test traffic, and Network Timing Protocol (NTR) traffic; and wherein the specified port comprises a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) port or a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) port that is within a specified range of ports and that is associated with unicast traffic.