Patent ID: 7899929

Claim:
A system for aggregating connections to a plurality of customer devices, comprising: a hybrid device to connect to the plurality of customer devices and a network device, where the hybrid device includes a plurality of switch/router modules, each of the plurality of switch/router modules corresponding to a particular group of the plurality of customer devices, and where a first one of the plurality of switch/router modules is to: function as a switch, and not as a router, when transmitting a first packet in an upstream direction from a first customer device of the particular group of customer devices to the network device, using an address of the network device, identified in the first packet, where the first one of the plurality of switch/router modules transmits the first packet without modifying a source address identified in the first packet, and function as a router when transmitting a second packet in a downstream direction from the network device to the first customer device, using an address table to look up an address of the first customer device.