Patent ID: 7369547

Claim:
A method comprising: a first network switch receiving a message at one of a plurality of interfaces to the first network switch, wherein the message comprises data; the first network switch generating first data as a function of both the data and first interface identifier data, wherein the first interface identifier data corresponds to the one of the plurality of interfaces to the first network switch and wherein generating the first data comprises concatenating the first interface identifier data with the data; the first network switch replacing the data in the message with the first data thereby creating a first modified message; the first network switch outputting the first modified message at another of the plurality of interfaces to the first network switch; a second network switch receiving the first modified message at one of a plurality of interfaces to the second network switch; the second network switch generating second data as a function of the first data and a second interface identifier data, wherein the second interface identifier data corresponds to the one of the plurality of interfaces to the second network switch; the second network switch replacing the first data in the first modified message with the second data thereby creating a second modified message; the second network switch outputting the second modified message from another of the plurality of interfaces to the second network switch; the first network switch receiving a second message, wherein the first network switch comprises a plurality of switched virtual circuits each one of which processes communication data; the first network switch releasing several of the plurality of switched virtual circuits in response to first network switch receiving the second message.