Patent ID: 8831013

Claim:
A method of connecting logical switches in a network of network switch chassis, each partitionable into a base logical switch and at least one non-base logical switch, the method comprising: establishing a physical shared inter-switch link between a first physical port of a first network switch chassis and a second physical port of a second network switch chassis, wherein: the first physical port is assigned to a first base logical switch of the first network switch, the second physical port is assigned to a second base logical switch of the second network switch, the first physical port is mapped to a first logical port of the first base logical switch, and the second physical port is mapped to a second logical port of the second base logical switch; and routing data over a logical inter-switch link between a third logical port and a fourth logical port over the shared inter-switch link, wherein: the third logical port is associated with a first non-base logical switch of the first network switch chassis, the fourth logical port is associated with a second non-base logical switch of the second network switch chassis, and the third logical port and the fourth logical port are not mapped to a physical port.