×

Seamless spanning tree upgrade of a linecard

  • US 20070159988A1
  • Filed: 01/10/2006
  • Published: 07/12/2007
  • Est. Priority Date: 01/10/2006
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
Patent Images

1. A method of restarting a first network device having a plurality of ports for receiving and transmitting layer 2 data, wherein the first network device belongs to a network of network devices, the method comprising:

  • when a restart of at least a portion of the first network device is imminent whereby the restarting network device portion can no longer alter a spanning tree protocol (STP) state of one or more of the ports and such ports that remain in a fixed state during the restart are referred to as restarting ports, maintaining a forwarding state of each restarting port that is in a forwarding state during the restart under predefined conditions; and

    during the restart, each of the restarting ports of the restarting network device portion cooperating with its peer port of a second non-restarting network device that is a neighbor of the first network device so as to prevent layer 2 loops in the network.

View all claims
  • 1 Assignment
Timeline View
Assignment View
    ×
    ×