Patent ID: 7616653

Claim:
A network interface card (NIC) aggregation framework, comprising: a first provider configured to publish a first port, wherein the first port is associated with a first NIC; a second provider configured to publish a second port, wherein the second port is associated with a second NIC; a third provider configured to publish a third port, where the third port is a virtual port and wherein the third provider is link aggregation control (LAC) software; a MAC client configured to send a packet to the third port; a provider interface operatively connected to a media access control (MAC) service module and interposed between the first provider, the second provider, and the third provider and the MAC service module; a client interface, operatively connected to the MAC service module interposed between the MAC client and the MAC service module; and the media access control (MAC) service module configured to: interface with the first provider, the second provider and the third provider using the provider interface, interface with the MAC client using the client interface, send the packet to the LAC software using the provider interface, wherein the LAC software is configured to select the first provider from a group consisting of the first NIC and the second NIC using a NIC selection algorithm and send the packet to the MAC service module using the client interface, and send the packet to the first provider upon receipt from the LAC software, wherein the MAC service module receives the packet from the LAC software using the client interface and sends the packet to the first provider using the provider interface.