Patent ID: 7558273

Claim:
A method for associating and translating virtual local area networks (VLANs) in a layer 2 switch, the method comprising: (a) at a first port in a layer 2 switch, receiving a first layer 2 frame addressed to an unknown destination medium access control (MAC) address; (b) associating a first VLAN tag with the first layer 2 frame; (c) determining whether the first VLAN tag is associated with a member VLAN or a translation VLAN, wherein the translation VLAN includes a VLAN with which multiple different member VLANs are associated by the layer 2 switch; (d) in response to determining that the first VLAN tag is associated with a member VLAN, flooding copies of the first layer 2 frame to ports of the member VLAN and to a translation VLAN associated with the member VLAN; and (e) in response to determining that the first VLAN tag is associated with a translation VLAN, identifying member VLANs associated with the translation VLAN, flooding copies of the first layer 2 frame to the member VLANs and to ports of the translation VLAN, wherein the copies include different VLAN identifiers corresponding to the different member VLANs.