Patent ID: 8411683

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a receiver configured to connect to a network and receive a plurality of packets; a plurality of ports configured to transmit the plurality of packets to a plurality of clients; a memory configured to store port configuration data; and a processor configured to: detect first protocol type packets, of the plurality of packets, having a particular destination address, translate the particular destination address of the detected first protocol type packets to a new destination address, transmit the translated first protocol type packets from one of the plurality of ports to a client communicatively coupled to the one of the plurality of ports, detect second protocol type packets of the plurality of packets received by the receiver, transmit the detected second protocol type packets, received by the receiver, over a subset of the plurality of ports to clients communicatively coupled to the subset of the plurality of ports irrespective of destination addresses of the second protocol type packets received by the receiver, and determine which of the plurality of ports to include in the subset of ports, wherein the determining comprises: detecting which of the plurality of ports receive second protocol type packets from the clients; updating the port configuration data on the memory, the updated port configuration data associating the subset of ports with second protocol type packets, and enabling the transmitting of the detected second protocol type packets, received by the receiver, over the subset of ports based on the updated port configuration data.