Patent ID: 7983257

Claim:
A hardware switch for enabling communications with one or more guest operating systems (OSs) in one or more servers, comprising: a first memory configured for receiving a destination address (DA) and determining if the DA is accessible through the one or more servers; a second memory coupled to the first memory and configured for receiving the DA and generating a routing rule to specify a route for the hardware switch if the DA is found in the first memory; a third memory coupled to the first memory and configured for receiving a virtual local area network identifier (VLAN_ID) and generating a vector to specify a set of destination ports for the hardware switch if the DA is not found in the first memory; a fourth memory to configure a set of ports within a given VLAN to be used by the hardware switch for broadcast media access control (MAC) DAs; and a plurality of virtual ports (vPorts) implemented in hardware, each of one or more of the vPorts configured to be associated with a particular guest OS.