Patent Document ID: 20090232139
Application ID: 12401253
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. An apparatus for transferring data through a network switch, comprising: a. a plurality of ports; b. a relational lookup engine to store a plurality of address databases in the form of relations storing MAC addresses for devices in communication with the network switch, each address database having a different database number; c. receiving a frame of the data on one of the ports, the frame including a destination MAC address; d. combining the destination MAC address and the database number of the port that received the frame to form an input relation; e. searching for the input relation in the relational lookup engine to retrieve the destination port identifier or a pointer to a memory that stores the port identifier; f. transmitting the frame to the destination port identified by the port identifier; whereby the incoming frame of data is routed to the output port that is attached to a receiving device that has the MAC address that matches the destination MAC address contained in the frame.