Patent ID: 8848706

Claim:
A console comprising: a switch; and a network device, wherein the network device comprises a switch port in communication with the switch, wherein the switch is separate from the network device; a plurality of first network ports, wherein each of the plurality of first network ports is configured to (i) receive a frame of data, and (ii) insert source information into the frame of data, wherein the source information in each frame of data, received by the plurality of first network ports, identifies the first network port that received the frame of data; and a controller configured to transfer each frame of data, including the source information, to the switch via the switch port, wherein the switch is configured to add to each frame of data transferred to the switch, destination information identifying one or more of the plurality of first network ports, and transfer each frame of data, including both the source information and the destination information, to the switch port of the network device, wherein the controller of the switch is further configured to transfer each frame of data, received from the switch port, to one or more of the plurality of first network ports of the network device based on one or more of i) the source information inserted into the frame of data and ii) the destination information inserted into the frame of data, and wherein each one of the plurality of first network ports is configured to, prior to transmitting a given frame of data transferred to the respective one of the plurality of first network ports by the controller, remove each of i) the source information inserted into the given frame of data and ii) the destination information inserted into the given frame of data.