Patent ID: 8830997

Claim:
A network device, comprising: a processor having an internet protocol (IP) address; a processor port configured to communicate exclusively with the processor; a plurality of network ports configured to communicate with network nodes external to the network device; and a forwarding engine configured to selectively transfer packets (i) among the plurality of network ports, and (ii) between the processor port and the plurality of network ports, receive a broadcast packet from one of the plurality of network ports, the broadcast packet including a target IP address, forward the broadcast packet to the processor, via the processor port, only when both (i) the broadcast packet is a control packet, and (ii) the target IP address of the broadcast packet matches the IP address of the processor, and inhibit the forwarding of the broadcast packet to the processor unless a virtual local area network (VLAN) identifier of the broadcast packet matches a VLAN identifier assigned to the processor.