Patent ID: 7634608

Claim:
A system, comprising: a first and a second virtual network stack; a first packet destination logically connected to the first virtual network stack and a second packet destination logically connected to the second virtual network stack; and a media access control (MAC) layer, comprising: a first VNIC, wherein the first VNIC is logically connected to the first virtual network stack, a second VNIC, wherein the second VNIC is logically connected to the second virtual network stack, and a bridge comprising a bridge component, a third virtual network interface card (VNIC) and a fourth VNIC, wherein the third VNIC is logically connected to the first VNIC and the fourth VNIC is logically connected to the second VNIC, wherein the bridge component is configured to: receive a packet from the third VNIC, wherein the packet is received from the first packet destination using the first virtual network stack and the first VNIC, and send the packet to the second packet destination, wherein the packet is sent using the second VNIC and the fourth VNIC, wherein the first and second virtual network stacks and the MAC layer are located within a single execution environment in a host.