Patent ID: 7586915

Claim:
In a data network comprising a plurality of nodes, a method for transferring data packets between a source node and a destination node contained in the network, wherein the source node and destination node belong to the same particular virtual-local-area network (VLAN), the method comprising the steps of: establishing a virtual port associated with the destination node, the virtual port supporting a plurality of connections that are each associated with a different VLAN, a particular connection associated with the particular VLAN; maintaining a single control structure for the virtual port, the single control structure storing information associated with each connection of the plurality of connections, the information including connection status and statistics for each connection of the plurality of connections; acquiring a data packet from the source node, wherein the packet is associated with the particular VLAN and contains a destination address associated with the destination node; applying the destination address contained in the packet and a VLAN ID that identifies the particular VLAN associated with the packet to a forwarding database to locate a forwarding database entry that contains (i) a destination address that matches the destination address contained in the packet and (ii) a VLAN ID that matches the VLAN ID that identifies the particular VLAN associated with the packet; identifying the virtual port associated with the destination node using a port identifier contained in the matching forwarding database entry; and transferring the packet to the destination node over the particular connection via the virtual port.