Patent ID: 8599864

Claim:
A method of connecting logical switches in a network, comprising: partitioning a first switch into a first plurality of logical switches; partitioning a second switch into a second plurality of logical switches; creating a first physical inter-switch link between a first logical switch of the first plurality of logical switches and a third switch; creating a second physical inter-switch link between a second logical switch of the second plurality of logical switches and the third switch; creating a logical inter-switch link between a first logical port of a third logical switch of the first plurality of logical switches and a second logical port of a fourth logical switch of the second plurality of logical switches; and routing traffic for the logical inter-switch link over the first physical inter-switch link and the second physical inter-switch link, transparent to the third switch, wherein the first logical port of the third logical switch is not mapped to a physical port of the first switch, and wherein the second logical port of the fourth logical switch is not mapped to a physical port of the second switch.