Patent ID: 8797897

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a first switch having an egress port, the egress port configured to be directly connected to a second switch to collectively define a single logical entity having a plurality of virtual identifiers, a first set of virtual identifiers from the plurality of virtual identifiers being associated with the first switch, a second set of virtual identifiers from the plurality of virtual identifiers being associated with the second switch, the first switch configured to receive a forwarding state table associating a first plurality of destination addresses with a plurality of identifiers local to the first switch and associating a second plurality of destination addresses with a plurality of identifiers local to the second switch, each identifier from the plurality of identifiers local to the first switch being uniquely associated with a virtual identifier from the first set of virtual identifiers, each identifier from the plurality of identifiers local to the second switch being uniquely associated with a virtual identifier from the second set of virtual identifiers, at least one destination address from the first plurality of destination addresses is an address of a device that is directly connected to the first switch and not a switch, at least one destination address from the second plurality of destination addresses is an address of a device that is directly connected to the second switch and not a switch.