Patent ID: 7653057

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a packet comprising one or more indicia recognizable by a filter of a packet switch, the indicia being capable of causing the filter, upon recognizing the indicia, to forward the packet to a control plane of the packet switch; determining that the packet should be forwarded to a data plane of the packet switch instead of the control plane, despite the indicia; preventing the filter from forwarding the packet to the control plane; and forwarding the packet to the data plane; wherein preventing further comprises modifying the packet effective to negate the indicia; wherein the packet comprises an original Ethernet destination address and the modifying of the packet comprises: using the original Ethernet destination address, determining a replacement address associated with the original Ethernet destination address; prior to the forwarding of the packet to the data plane, modifying the packet a first time by replacing the original Ethernet destination address with the replacement address; and after the forwarding of the packet to the data plane, modifying the packet a second time by replacing the replacement address with the original Ethernet destination address.