Packet forwarding

A packet forwarding method, comprising:

• receiving, by an Input/Output (I/O) board of a Virtual eXtensible Local Area Network (VXLAN) switch, a packet with a first VXLAN encapsulation, removing the first VXLAN encapsulation from the packet with the first VXLAN encapsulation, determining to perform layer 3 forwarding for the packet, and sending the packet to a fabric board of the VXLAN switch;
• receiving, by the fabric board of the VXLAN switch, the packet sent by the I/O board, determining to perform layer 3 forwarding for the received packet, searching out a layer 3 entry matching a destination Internet Protocol (IP) address of the packet from a local layer 3 table, modifying a source Media Access Control (MAC) address of the packet into a gateway MAC address of the VXLAN switch, modifying a destination MAC address of the packet into a destination MAC address in the layer 3 entry, and when an egress port in the layer 3 entry is a VXLAN tunnel port, sending the modified packet to an I/O board associated with the egress port in the layer 3 entry in the VXLAN switch;
• and
• receiving, by the I/O board associated with the egress port in the layer 3 entry in the VXLAN switch, the packet sent by the fabric board, and adding a second VXLAN encapsulation to the received packet and forwarding the packet with the second VXLAN encapsulation to a VXLAN,
• wherein, the sending the modified packet to the I/O board associated with the egress port in the layer 3 entry in the VXLAN switch comprises:
• adding a second internal encapsulation to the modified packet, and sending the packet with the second internal encapsulation to the I/O board associated with the egress port in the layer 3 entry in the VXLAN switch, wherein the second internal encapsulation comprises a second destination chip identity, a second destination port identity, and a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) ID in the layer 3 entry, the second destination chip identity is an identity of a chip for forwarding packets on the I/O board associated with the egress port in the layer 3 entry in the VXLAN switch, and the second destination port identity is a second virtual port identity;
• and
• the adding the second VXLAN encapsulation to the received packet and forwarding the packet with the second VXLAN encapsulation to the VXLAN comprises:
• determining the second destination chip identity and the second destination port identity in a second internal encapsulation header of the packet;
• when the second destination chip identity is the identity of the chip for forwarding packets on the I/O board associated with the egress port in the layer 3 entry and the second destination port identity is the second virtual port identity, determining a VLAN ID in the second internal encapsulation header of the packet and removing the second internal encapsulation from the packet, searching out Virtual Network ID (VNID) corresponding to the determined VLAN ID from a predefined mapping relationship between VLAN IDs and VNIDs, searching out a MAC entry matching the destination MAC address of the packet and the searched-out VNID from a local MAC entry of the I/O board associated with the egress port in the layer 3 entry, searching out a VXLAN tunnel encapsulation entry from a local VXLAN tunnel encapsulation entry according to an egress port in the searched-out MAC entry;
• adding the second VXLAN encapsulation to the packet according to the VXLAN tunnel encapsulation entry and the VLAN ID, and sending the packet with the second VXLAN encapsulation via the egress port in the MAC entry.