Patent ID: 8842684

Claim:
A first network switch comprising: a memory to store switch logic; a processor to execute the switch logic; a first physical switch port of the first network switch to receive a first physical switch link from a second network switch via a first gateway node at the first network switch; a second physical switch port to receive a second physical switch link from the second network switch via a second gateway node at the second network switch; first switch logic to implement first and second logical Inter-Switch Connections (ISC′) to the second switch via the first and second physical switch links respectively; second switch logic to implement a Primary Forwarder within the first network switch, the Primary Forwarder to communicably interface with a Secondary Forwarder in the second switch via the first logical Inter-Switch Connection (ISC′); third switch logic to implement a Secondary Forwarder within the first network switch, the Secondary Forwarder to communicably interface with a Primary Forwarder in the second switch via the second logical Inter-Switch Connection (ISC′); a third physical switch port to receive a first interface connection; a fourth physical switch port to receive a second interface connection; switch forwarding logic to determine whether the first gateway node at the first network switch or the second gateway node at the second network switch is the gateway for frames received at the first network switch; and the switch forwarding logic to forward the frames received at the first network switch internally within the first network switch via the Primary Forwarder when the gateway for the frames is determined to be the first gateway node at the first network switch or to alternatively forward the frames received at the first network switch to the second network switch via the Secondary Forwarder within the first network switch when the gateway for the frames is determined to be the second gateway node at the second network switch.