Patent ID: 7978689

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a plurality of network interface cards, wherein a first group of the plurality of network interface cards are each associated with a different Ethernet address and are logically grouped as members of a voice VLAN, and each of the first group of the plurality of network interface cards includes a terminal equipment port that is configured to be connected to a different one of a plurality of telephones, wherein a second group of the plurality of network interface cards are each associated with a different Ethernet address and are logically grouped as members of a data VLAN, and each includes a terminal equipment port that is configured to be connected to a different one of a plurality of computers; a functional circuit in communication with the plurality of network interface cards and configured to connect to an Ethernet network, wherein the functional circuit is configured to construct an Ethernet frame including data representative of information received via the network interface cards, and configured to deconstruct an Ethernet frame received via an Ethernet port, wherein the function circuit is configured to assign a higher transmission priority to Ethernet frames that are constructed for sending over the voice VLAN than Ethernet frames that are constructed for sending over the data VLAN; and an Ethernet port in communication with the functional circuit.