Patent ID: 7782856

Claim:
A method of transmitting data packets having tag values conforming to different formats on a link comprising: a packet switch receiving a data packet on each of a plurality of switch ports of the packet switch, each data packet comprising an Ethernet destination address and comprising a tag occupying a portion of the data packet, the tag comprising tag type bits and tag value bits, the tag type bits identifying a format to which the tag value bits conform, the tag type bits of a first one of the data packets being different from the tag type bits of a second one of the data packets; the packet switch forwarding each of the data packets to a common destination port of the packet switch, the common destination port being configured to transmit data packets having a plurality of tag types; the packet switch multiplexing the data packets onto a link connected to the common destination port by transmitting the data packets on the link one at a time; and for individual ones of the multiplexed data packets, the packet switch transmitting the Ethernet destination address of the individual multiplexed data packet prior to transmitting the tag of the individual multiplexed data packet.