Patent ID: 8885475

Claim:
A network element comprising: a traffic manager configured to perform at least one of policing of traffic flows and shaping of traffic flows; and a switching element communicatively coupled to the traffic manager; wherein the switching element and the traffic manager together are configured to: receive a frame via an ingress port of the network element; assign a virtual destination address to the frame; modify the virtual destination address one or more times such that the virtual destination address is translated to an actual destination address identifying an actual egress port of the network element; and, route the frame to the actual egress port of the network element based on the actual destination address; the switching element comprising: a first stage configured to assign the virtual destination address upon ingress of the frame; a second stage configured to, only when the frame is subject to protection switching, translate a virtual module identifier of a plug-in unit (PIU) of the network element and a virtual destination port of the virtual destination address to at least one of (i) a virtual destination trunk for the frame and (ii) the virtual module identifier of the PIU and the actual egress port; a third stage configured to translate the virtual destination trunk of received from the second stage to the virtual module identifier of the PIU and the actual egress port; a fourth stage configured to, based on the virtual module identifier of the PIU from the second stage or the third stage, select an internal link of the network element for communication of the frame from the switching element to the traffic manager, where the internal link comprises an intra-PIU link or an inter-PIU link between different PIUs of the network element; and a sixth stage configured to, based on an actual module identifier of the PIU and the actual egress port of the frame, route the frame to the actual egress port.