An apparatus and method for transferring data through a network switch. The network switch comprises a plurality of ports each having at least one port identifier and associating with at least one virtual local area network (VLAN) database, and a relational lookup engine storing a plurality of relations between at least one media access control (MAC) address and the at least one port identifier. At least one port receives a frame of data comprising a destination MAC (DMAC) address and the relational lookup engine uses the DMAC address to retrieve an associated port identifier that identifies a port to which the frame is forwarded. A source MAC (SMAC) address of the frame is used to produce an input relation for the relational lookup engine to identify the associated port identifier that identifies the port that received the frame of data for learning associations between the ports and MAC addresses.