Patent ID: 6912223

Claim:
A system for facilitating routing of packets, comprising: a router configured to receive and forward packets, the router having a plurality of router ports; a plurality of subnets including a first source subnet, each of the plurality of subnets configured to receive and send packets; and a multi-layer switch positioned between the router and the plurality of subnets and configured to communicate directly with the router and the plurality of subnets, the multi-layer switch having a plurality of ports, each port coupling to either a router port or a subnet, a pair of adjacent ports coupling a router port to a subnet, the multi-layer switch further configured to examine respective packets received from the router and the plurality of subnets, the multi-layer switch further having a forwarding table having a plurality of entries, each entry having a Layer-2 sub-entry a Layer-3 sub-entry, the Layer-2 sub-entry having a destination Media Access Control (MAC) address and destination port information, the Layer-3 sub-entry having a destination Internet Protocol (IP) address, the destination port information and the destination MAC address; wherein a first packet sent by the file source subnet is examined by the multi-layer switch; wherein the forwarding table is used by the multi-layer switch to determine how to route the first packet sent by the first source subnet; wherein if the first packet is intended for a first destination subnet that is one of the plurality of subnets, the first packet is delivered by the multi-layer switch directly to the first destination subnet without passing through the router, and if the first packet is not intended for any of the plurality of subnets, the first packet is delivered by the multi-layer switch to the router for further routing; and wherein the forwarding table is dynamically updated with information relating to the packets received from the router and the plurality of subnets.