142 and mac addresses 144 the port group information 142 may include information pertaining to the first port group 171 assigned or otherwise associated with the north bridge element 108 the mac addresses 144 may include addresses of the south bridge elements 116 118 120 122 among other components of the system in one embodiment the address data 134 of the north bridge element 108 includes link state information 146 having status information pertaining to various links and ports that are associated with the north bridge element 108 the address data 134 may also include virtual local area networks vlan and logical network ln assignments 148 associated with the north bridge element 108 for example the vlan and logical network assignments 148 may be used by the north bridge element 108 to route data frames through north bridge elements 108 vlans and logical networks may be further associated with port groups 171 172 the primary controlling bridge 124 may include link and node data 186 the link and node data 186 may include mac addresses of ports and or links to be associated with the north bridge elements 108 110 112 for routing data frames the primary controlling bridge 124 may also include at least one associating algorithm 188 configured to automatically assign the address data 134 and the routing algorithm 136 to the north bridge elements 108 110 112 the.