Patent ID: 7707312

Claim:
In a network including a switching node having a plurality of ports, a method for dynamically associating one of the ports to a virtual local area network (VLAN) based on a VLAN membership of a device connected to the port, the device being a silent device that responds to traffic transmitted by another device but does not initiate traffic to the other device, the method comprising: receiving at the switching node a command from a network administrator associating the device to the VLAN wherein the switching node has a mobile port containing a frame reception and transmission module and also has a source learning module coupled to a layer 2 table which is coupled to a forwarding module and a printer discovery protocol (PDP) module coupled to the source learning module and a PDP table; transmitting to the plurality of ports in response to the command, a first message configured to generate a response by the device; receiving at a particular port, a second message from the device responsive to the first message; identifying the port receiving the second message; and associating the identified port to the VLAN associated with the device and updating the layer 2 table and the PDP table.