Patent ID: 7222188

Claim:
A switch comprising: a plurality of ports including (i) a first plurality of ports adapted for coupling to a plurality of devices, including a source device being a member of a first network and a destination device being a member of a second network, and (ii) a second plurality of ports coupled to a router so that the switch is interposed between the router and the plurality of devices; and a mechanism to determine, using layer three (L 3 ) information contained in a packet received by a source port of the plurality of ports, which one of the plurality of ports is coupled to the destination device and to transfer information contained in the packet to the destination device without use of a routing function, the mechanism further generates a data structure including layer two (L 2 ) addresses and corresponding layer three (L 3 ) addresses associated with the destination device before transferring information to the destination device, the data structure being populated based on prior communications with the router.