Patent ID: 7680107

Claim:
A network device for selecting a port from a trunk group on which to transmit a packet, the network device comprising: at least one trunk group comprising a plurality of physical ports, wherein the network device is configured to connect to at least one other network device by a number of the plurality of physical ports; a table comprising a plurality of entries, wherein each entry is associated with one of the plurality of physical ports on the network device; a determiner configured to determine whether or not an override field is set; a hasher configured to hash, based on a result from the determiner, a predefined number of bits from predefined fields in a packet to select one entry in the table, wherein the selected one entry is used to identify a destination port, the predefined fields including: a source address, a VLAN, an Ethertype, a source module identifier, a destination address, and a source port; or a source IP address, a TCP source port, a destination IP address, and a TCP destination port; or a source address, a destination address, a source port trunk identifier, a source port, and a source module identifier; or source IP address, a destination IP address, a source port trunk group identifier, a source port, and a source module identifier; and a transmitter configured to transmit the packet to the destination port based on results from one of the determining or the hashing.