Patent ID: 7756126

Claim:
A method for supporting and maintaining virtual local area networks of a network based on internal operations within a network switch, comprising: initiating communications between a first network device and a second network device by the network switch; determining whether a media access control (MAC) address unique identifier of the second network device is within an Association listing, the Association listing being stored within a memory implemented within the network switch and including source MAC addresses unique identifiers of networks devices associated with the first network device and virtual local area network (VLAN) identifiers for the network devices associated with the first network device; determining if the source MAC address unique identifier of the second network device is within a Bridge listing if the source MAC address unique identifier of the second network device is not located within the Association listing, the Bridge listing being stored within the memory implemented within the network switch; and reading a VLAN identifier assigned to the second network device from the Bridge listing for use in a multicast or broadcast transmission from the network switch to network devices assigned to a virtual local area network represented by the VLAN identifier if the source MAC address unique identifier of the second network device is located within the Bridge listing.