Patent ID: 7720095

Claim:
A method to bridge network packet media, comprising: receiving a first network packet from a first media channel via a first network interface; receiving a second network packet from a second media channel via a second network interface; relaying the first network packet and the second network packet to a first shared processing resource via a switch fabric; and using an application accessible to the first shared processing resource to bridge the first network packet to the second media channel via the second network interface and the second network packet to the first media channel via the first network interface, by translating the first network packet from a first packet format associated with the first media channel to a first intermediate packet having an Ethernet media format; translating the second network packet from a second packet format associated with the second media channel to a second intermediate packet having the Ethernet media format; translating the first intermediate packet from the Ethernet media format to a first outbound network packet having the second packet format; and translating the second intermediate packet from the Ethernet media format to a second outbound network packet having the first packet format, wherein the application is a virtual bridge application accessible to the processing resource to bridge between the media channels and wherein the virtual bridge application uses a format translation table to bridge between the media channels, wherein the format translation table comprises a plurality of cells, wherein a first cell identifies appropriate format translation information for translating from the Ethernet media format to the first packet format and a second cell identifies appropriate format translation information for translating from the Ethernet media format to the second packet format, wherein the processing resource uses metadata associated with each of the media channels to translate the network packets between the media channels, and wherein a metadata element from the second media channel and the first packet format uniquely identify the first cell.