NIC with switching functionality between network ports

A network interface device, comprising:

• a host interface for connection to a host processor;
• a network interface, which is configured to transmit and receive data packets over a network, and which comprises multiple distinct physical ports configured for connection to the network;
• and
• processing circuitry, which is configured to read work items from send queues in a system memory of the host processor, via the host interface, and according to the read work items to gather data from the system memory and transmit it in outgoing packets through the network interface,
• wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to receive, via one of the physical ports, a data packet from the network, to decide, responsively to a destination identifier in the received data packet, whether to deliver a payload of the received data packet to the host processor via the host interface or to forward the received data packet to the network via another one of the physical ports, to store a payload of the received data packet in a buffer, and upon deciding that the received data packet is to be forwarded to the network, to place a work item indicating a location of the stored payload, in one of the send queues in the system memory, without informing the host processor that the received data packet has arrived, such that in reading work items from the send queues, the processing circuitry will read the work item it placed in one of the send queues and will accordingly forward the received data packet to the network, such that the received data packet is forwarded back to the network without using switching hardware within the network interface device between a first one of the multiple distinct physical ports through which the received data packet was received from the network and a second one of the multiple distinct physical ports through which the received data packet is forwarded.