Patent ID: 8488608

Claim:
An aggregation switch in a multi-chassis system, comprising: a virtual fabric link (VFL) connected to a remote aggregation switch, wherein the remote aggregation switch is in a separate physical chassis and wherein the virtual fabric link includes a first subset of VFL links and a second subset of VFL links; a first network interface module connected to the remote aggregation switch over the first subset of VFL links; a second network interface module connected to remote aggregation switch over the second subset of VFL links; a third network interface module operable to: receive an incoming packet on one of a plurality of external port interfaces, wherein the packet includes a destination address; access at least one forwarding address table that includes a mapping of addresses to hardware device information associated with the remote aggregation switch; determine destination hardware device information corresponding to a hardware device on the remote aggregation switch based on the destination address of the incoming packet and the at least one forwarding table; generate a load balancing identifier; generate a packet with pre-pended header from the incoming packet, wherein the pre-pended header includes the destination hardware device information and the load balancing identifier; and map the packet with pre-pended header to first network interface module when the load balancing identifier is associated with the first subset of VFL links and map the packet with pre-pended header to the second network interface module when the load balancing identifier is associated with the second subset of VFL links.