A LAN network switch includes a RAM forwarding database which contains the address-to-port mappings for all the workstations or other devices connected to the switch's plurality of ports and further includes at least one CAM-cache connected to respective one or more of the switch's ports. The CAM-cache, having an access time much faster than that of the forwarding database, stores selected ones of the address-to-port mappings. When it is desired for the switch to forward a packet, the destination address is extracted and the CAM-cache is accessed and searched. If the correct mapping is contained in the CAM-cache, the packet is immediately forwarded to the destination port without accessing the much larger and slower forwarding database. Only if the CAM-cache does not contain the correct mapping is the forwarding database accessed to retrieve the correct mapping. The packet is then forwarded to the destination port, and the CAM-cache is updated with this mapping so that succeeding packets having the same destination address-to-port mapping may be forwarded to the destination port by accessing only the fast CAM-cache and, by eliminating the need to access the much slower forwarding database, increasing the forwarding speed of the switch.