US Patent 10243840 Network interface card switching for virtual networks

In some examples, a computing device comprises a virtual network endpoint; a network interface card (NIC) comprising a first hardware component and a second hardware component, wherein the first hardware component and the second hardware component provide separate packet input/output access to a physical network interface of the NIC, wherein the NIC is configured to receive a packet inbound from the physical network interface; and a virtual router to receive the packet from the NIC and output, using the first hardware component, in response to determining a destination endpoint of the packet is the virtual network endpoint, the packet back to the NIC, wherein the NIC is further configured to switch, in response to receiving the packet from the virtual router, the packet to the virtual network endpoint and to output, using the second hardware component, the packet to the virtual network endpoint.