Patent ID: 7746813

Claim:
A network device comprising: an interface section to operatively connect to a plurality of communication lines via which data units are received at the network device, the data units having an associated first parameter indicative of a virtual connection associated with the received data units, the interface section including: a set of write members to write information in a header of the data units, the information being indicative of a second parameter corresponding to a particular one of the plurality of communication lines via which one of the data units is received, and a detection member to receive the data units from the write members of the set according to a time division basis, the detection member to filter the data units received from the write members based on the first parameter and the second parameter, where the detection member comprises: a first filter to compare a value of the second parameter to a predetermined value and forward data units for which the value of the second parameter matches the predetermined value and discard data units for which the value of the second parameter does not match the predetermined value; and a processor to receive the filtered data units from the interface section.