Facilitating management of layer 2 hardware address table based on packet priority information

A data storage device having a set of processor-executable instructions stored thereon, the set of processor-executable instructions comprising:

• instructions for populating hardware address table storage space with entries, wherein each one of said entries includes respective information designating a priority of a respective source network address;
• instructions for comparing priority designating information of a received packet with said priority designating information of at least a portion of said entries within the hardware address table storage space in response to determining that a number of entries within the hardware address table storage space is equal to a capacity of the hardware address table storage space;
• and
• instructions for replacing an entry within the hardware address table storage space with an entry having contents corresponding to said received packet in response to determining that a priority level corresponding to said priority designating information of said received packet is higher than a priority level corresponding to said priority designating information of said replaced entry.

A network switching device, comprising:

• hardware address table storage space having a number of entries therein, wherein each one of said entries within the hardware address table storage space includes respective information designating a priority of a respective source network address;
• a priority comparison mechanism configured for comparing said priority designating information of said received packet with said priority designating information of at least a portion of said entries within the hardware address table storage space in response to determining that a number of entries within the hardware address table storage space is equal to a capacity of the hardware address table storage space;
• and
• an address table management mechanism configured for replacing an entry within the hardware address table storage space with an entry having contents corresponding to said received packet in response to determining that a priority level corresponding to said priority designating information of said received packet is higher than a priority level corresponding to said priority designating information of said replaced entry.