Patent ID: 7822025

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: an upper-layer network device comprising an uplink interface, wherein said upper-layer network device is configured to be coupled to a plurality of lower-layer network devices comprising a lower-layer network device and another lower-layer network device, said uplink interface is configured to receive a packet from a lower-layer network device coupled to said upper-layer network device, said upper-layer network device is configured to effect said receiving irrespective of a destination of said packet, said upper-layer network device is further configured to perform lower-layer protocol processing and upper-layer protocol processing, and said upper-layer network device is further configured to perform said lower-layer protocol processing on behalf of said lower-layer network device, wherein said lower-layer protocol processing comprises local processing, said local processing is local to said lower-layer network device by virtue of said local processing comprising determining whether a packet received at a first port of a plurality of ports of said lower-layer network device should be forwarded to a second port of said ports, and if said packet should be forwarded to the second port of said ports, forwarding the packet to the second port of said ports in response to said determining, and said lower-layer processing further comprises determining whether said packet should be forwarded to said another lower-layer network device.