Trunking support in a high performance network device

A network device comprising:

• a plurality of ports including a first port configured to transmit a packet to a second network device, at least the first port configured to be included in a trunk associated with the second network device, wherein the trunk is a logical channel between the network device and the second network device that includes two or more physical network links;
• a memory for storing a forwarding database, the forwarding database including a plurality of entries each containing forwarding information for a particular address;
• and
• a filtering circuit coupled to the first port and the memory, the filtering circuit configured to receive forwarding information corresponding to a destination address contained within the packet, the filtering circuit further configured to modify the forwarding information based upon a predetermined set of trunking rules and one or more characteristics of the trunk.

A method comprising the steps of:

• receiving a packet on one of a plurality of ports of a network device, the packet containing therein header information including a destination address;
• searching a forwarding database for the destination address;
• and
• if the destination address is not found in the forwarding database, then
• performing load balancing to assure the packet is forwarded to only one port of a trunk if the trunk is coupled to a network device of a first type, wherein the trunk is a logical channel between the network device and another network device including two or more physical network links, and
• forwarding the packet to all ports of the trunk if the trunk is coupled to a network device of a second type.

A method for use in a network device, the method comprising the steps of:

• receiving a packet on a first port of a plurality of trunked ports in a trunk, wherein the trunk is a logical channel between the network device and another network device including two or more physical network links each of the plurality of trunked ports associated with a different port designator and a common trunk designator;
• searching a forwarding database for a source address contained in the packet;
• and
• if the source address is not found in the forwarding database, then learning either the common trunk designator or the different port designator associated with the first port based upon a mode of the first port if the first port is in a first mode, the first port has the same media access control (MAC) address as the other trunked ports of the plurality of trunked ports, and if the first port is in a second mode, the first port has a different MAC address than each of the other trunked ports of the plurality of trunked ports.

A method comprising the steps of:

• receiving a packet on one of a plurality of ports of a network device, the packet containing therein header information including a destination address;
• searching a forwarding database for the destination address;
• and
• if the destination address is not found in the forwarding database, then
• performing load balancing to assure the packet is forwarded to only one port of a trunk if the trunk is coupled to a network device of a first type which has the same media access control (MAC) address on all trunked ports, wherein the trunk is a logical channel between the network device and another network device including two or more physical network links;
• and
• forwarding the packet to all ports of the trunk if the trunk is coupled to a network device of a second type which has a different MAC address for each trunked port.