Patent ID: 6973026

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a first interface comprising a plurality of physical communication ports to transmit data to and receive data from a plurality of network devices; a first control unit communicatively coupled to the first interface to process at least a first subset of the data; a second control unit communicatively coupled to the first interface and the first control unit to process at least a second subset of the data, wherein the first and second control units further independently maintain network status information; and a logical network interface to provide multiple logical communication ports, the logical network interface communicatively coupled between the first interface and the first and second control units, wherein the logical network interface is communicatively coupled to each of the physical communication ports of the first interface by at least one signal line such that if a forwarding lookup for a packet is unsuccessful the packet is transmitted to multiple communication ports, and wherein the logical network interface enables each control unit to simultaneously manage each of the physical communication ports.