Patent ID: 7295552

Claim:
A network switch, said network switch comprising: at least one data port interface supporting a plurality of data ports; a submodule adding an interstack tag into data to keep track of a stack count to prevent looping of the data; at least one stack link interface comprising a bi-directional gigabit stack link interface configured to transmit the data between said network switch and other network switches to create a predetermined configuration, wherein the data is removed from said at least one stack link interface in a reverse order from that in which the data is added, where the most recently added data is the first one removed; a memory management unit in communication with said at least one data port interface and said at least one stack link interface; and a memory interface in communication with said at least one data port interface and said at least one stack link interface, wherein said memory interface is configured to communicate with a memory, wherein said memory management unit is configured to route data received from each of said at least one data port interface and said at least one stack link interface to the memory interface.