Patent ID: 8488467

Claim:
A method for processing data, the method comprising: receiving packetized data via at least one of a plurality of input ports in an Ethernet switch, wherein each of said plurality of input ports is partitioned into a plurality of virtual local area network (VLAN) port domains with an assigned port domain identification (ID) for processing IEEE 802.1Q-2005 Class of Service (CoS) priority and Quality of Service (QoS) packetized data, wherein said Ethernet switch is integrated within a single gigabit Ethernet IP telephone chip that processes multiple voice channels, said received packetized data having assigned at least one priority class; utilizing one or more bits in at least one plurality of registers in said Ethernet switch to filter at least one ingress frame in said received packetized data, based on at least one packet header attribute of said at least one ingress frame, said at least one packet header attribute associated with at least one priority class; processing said received packetized data by said Ethernet switch based on said filtering; and forwarding at least a portion of said filtered packetized data from at least a first of said plurality of input ports to at least a second of said plurality of input ports, based on one or both of a VLAN port ID tag and/or a priority tag associated with said filtered packetized data.