Abstract: A network device includes a content addressable memory (CAM). The CAM may be accessed by a host processor. The host processor stores active device addresses in the CAM. Each device address is associated with one of the network switch ports. If the network switch receives a packet having a source address not presently stored in the CAM, the network switch adds the source address to the CAM. If the CAM is full of source addresses, the new source address replaces a selected one of the old source addresses.

Abstract: An apparatus for and method of assigning a VLAN tag to a frame received at a port of a switch are disclosed. The apparatus includes a content addressable memory, a data frame memory, a search circuit, and a tagging circuit. The content addressable memory stores tagging information, the tagging information including lookup data and associated tag data. The frame memory stores at least part of a data frame, the part including data frame information. The search circuit is connected to the content addressable memory and the data frame memory. The search circuit reads the data frame information, searches the content addressable memory for the lookup data corresponding to the data frame information, and reads a corresponding subset of the associated tag data. The tagging circuit is connected to the search circuit and the data frame memory. The tagging circuit writes in the data frame memory a VLAN tag including the corresponding subset of the associated tag data.