Importance

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Abstract

A technique shares a port (e.g., a physical port) among a plurality of virtual bridges on a switch in a computer network. According to the novel technique, two or more virtual bridges are established on the switch, and are each assigned respective sets of Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs). Each virtual bridge has a virtual interface corresponding to the physical port (a “shared trunk”), the virtual bridges regarding the virtual interfaces as though they were physical ports. Control messages transmitted by the virtual bridges on the virtual interfaces are sent over the physical port and to each other virtual interface of the port (the shared trunk), such as, e.g., by a virtual hub of the shared trunk. Also, control messages received on the physical port are sent over each virtual interface to each virtual bridge (e.g., by the virtual hub).

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First Claim