Routing MAC Address Management for Expanding Switch Interfaces

The patent applies universality by enabling the routing MAC address management table to serve multiple routing interfaces simultaneously. Instead of dedicating one table to one interface, the same hardware table resources are shared across multiple interfaces through software management, allowing the system to support more routing interfaces than the hardware table size would traditionally permit.

The patent introduces software as an intermediary layer between the routing interfaces and the hardware routing MAC address management table. This software layer manages and allocates table entries dynamically, acting as a mediator that allows multiple interfaces to access limited hardware resources without requiring a one-to-one correspondence, thus expanding interface capacity beyond hardware limitations.

The patent creates a software-based copy or virtual representation of the routing MAC address management table that can be replicated and allocated to multiple interfaces. Instead of increasing physical hardware table size, the system uses software structures that can be instantiated multiple times, allowing logical expansion of table capacity without consuming additional hardware resources for each interface.

The patent transitions from a single-dimension hardware table to a multi-dimensional management structure by introducing software layers. This adds temporal and logical dimensions to table management, allowing the same hardware resources to be allocated to multiple interfaces at different times or under different logical contexts, effectively expanding capacity without increasing physical resource quantity.