Method And System For Handling Traffic In A Data Communication Network

A method and system for offloading data traffic routing from one NI (network interface) to another in a multi-NI platform. When an NI determines that offloading of data traffic should occur, it disables routing at the incoming port or ports on which L3 traffic may be received, and reconfigures an L2 table to indicate that traffic addressed to a router MAC address should not be routed, but instead bridged to the other NI. This bridging is preferably done using an inter-NI link that is dedicated for communication between two or more NIs in the multi-Ni platform. The determination to offload traffic may, in some embodiments, be made as part of an initialization sequence and offloading is used until synchronization of the NI has been completed to a pre-determined point, at which time a determination is made to terminate offloading and routing from the NI is re-enabled.