Patent ID: 8208483

Claim:
A method in an Ethernet switch of handling received Ethernet unicast packets, the switch having two or more interfacing ports, each interfacing port being provided with an output buffer logically divided into different priority buffers, the method comprising the steps of: determining a destination address and a traffic priority of a received unicast packet; searching for a stored association between the destination address and any of the interfacing ports of the switch; when an association is found, scheduling and queuing the packet in one of the priority buffers of the output buffer in the associated interfacing port according to the packet's traffic priority; and when no association is found: flooding the unicast packet by queuing the unicast packet in a flooding buffer in every interfacing port of the switch, wherein each flooding buffer is further logically divided into different priority flooding buffers for scheduling and queuing the flooded unicast packet according to the flooded unicast packet's traffic priority, wherein each flooded unicast packet is prioritized in relation to other flooded unicast packets based on each flooded unicast packet's traffic priority; and transmitting the flooded unicast packet through each of the interfacing outgoing ports according to the flooded unicast packet's traffic priority after packets for which an association was found are transmitted.