Patent attributes
A packet switch includes individual route tables for ports of the packet switch. Each route table is associated with a port and individually maps a destination identifier of a data packet received at the port to another port in the packet switch. In some embodiments, the packet switch routes a data packet to an intermediate device based on a destination identifier in the data packet. The intermediate device services the data packet and sends the data packet, which includes the same destination identifier, back to the packet switch. In turn, the packet switch routes the data packet to a destination device based on the destination identifier in the data packet. The destination device terminates the data packet and may further service the data packet. In this way, the packet switch routes the data packet to both the intermediate device and the destination device based on the same destination identifier.
