Patent ID: 7729352

Claim:
A method comprising: via a switch communicatively coupled to a telecommunications network: receiving a packet comprising a flow identifier, the flow identifier sent to a host responsive to a request for the flow identifier from the host, the packet comprising an Ethernet packet header and an Ethernet payload, the Ethernet packet header comprising an Ethernet source address and an Ethernet destination address, the Ethernet destination address being a first host address that is a virtual host address, the Ethernet payload comprising an Internet Protocol header and an Internet Protocol payload, and the Internet Protocol header comprising an Internet Protocol source address and an Internet Protocol destination address, the packet comprising a single byte virtual circuit flag, the virtual circuit flag adapted to cause socket software to use the virtual host address, the virtual circuit flag adapted to cause socket software to create a full duplex virtual circuit; and storing a second host address correlated with the first host address in a virtual circuit forwarding table, the second host address determined based upon the Internet Protocol destination address in the Internet Protocol header, the second host address being a real host address.