Patent ID: 7796612

Claim:
A network switch for network communications, the network switch comprising: a first data port interface supporting a data port transmitting and receiving data at a first data rate; a second data port interface supporting a data port transmitting and receiving data at a second data rate; and a plurality of lookup tables, the lookup tables including an address resolution lookup table and a VLAN table, wherein: the first data port interface or the second data port interface is configured to determine an egress port by obtaining a class of service; the second data rate is greater than the first data rate, a header of the incoming data packet contains an opcode used to identify a packet type, and when the incoming data packet arrives at a port of the second data port interface, the second data port interface is configured to forward the incoming packet based on the opcode; and the opcode identifies whether the incoming data packet is a unicast packet, a multicast packet, a broadcast packet or resulted in a destination lookup failure.