| 摘要 |
A novel method of data forwarding is provided in a network switch having multiple ports including at least one backbone port for data communications with backbone network nodes. Destination information of a received data packet is compared with a predetermined set of address data in an address table. If the packet's destination information is not found in the address table, the received data packet is forwarded to the backbone port. Further, the source address information of the received data packet may be compared with the address table. In a regular mode of operation, if the packet's source address information is not found in the address table, this information is added to the address table. However, in a backbone mode of operation, the address information of a data packet received from the backbone port is prevented from being added to the address table. The switch may have backbone ports provided for multiple VLANs supported by the switch. A first data packet received from a first VLAN is forwarded to at least one backbone port for that VLAN, if the packet's destination information is not found in the address table. Similarly, a second data packet received from a second VLAN is forwarded to at least one backbone port for the second VLAN if the packet's destination information is not found in the address table. A backbone vector storage is provided for identifying backbone ports for the multiple VLANs supported by the switch.
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