Patent ID: 7184396

Claim:
A method for bridging network traffic in a networking device having a plurality of communication interfaces, the method comprising: creating a bridged routing table separate from a main routing table, the main routing table for routing network traffic, the bridged routing table for bridging the network traffic over both a first communication interface and a second communication interface before requiring a bridge between the predetermined pair of communication interfaces; subsequently determining that a bridge is needed between the first communication interface and the second communication interface; and establishing the bridge between the first communication interface and the second communication interface using the bridged routing table, wherein creating the bridged routine table for bridging the first communication interface and the second communication interface comprises: finding, in the main routing table, a number of main routing entries having the first communication interface as an outgoing interface; and creating in the bridged routing table a corresponding bridged routing entry for each of said number of main routing entries, wherein each bridged routing entry includes all outing interfaces from its corresponding main routing entry and further includes the second communication interface as an outgoing interface.