CLEARING FORWARDING ENTRIES DYNAMICALLY AND ENSURING CONSISTENCY OF TABLES ACROSS ETHERNET FABRIC SWITCH

• US 20130003729A1
• Filed: 02/03/2012
• Published: 01/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Raman, Mythilikanth, Venkatesh, Vardarajan, Manohar, Mary, Chen, Wei-Chiuan, Vegesana, Gangadhar, Shekarappa, Raju
• Granted Patent: US 8,879,549 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/54 Organization of routing tables
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/66 Layer 2 routing, e.g. in Ethernet based MAN's
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/604 Hybrid IP/Ethernet switches

Abstract

One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. The switch includes an ownership management mechanism and a notification mechanism. The ownership management mechanism maintains a local ownership association between the switch, and a medium access control (MAC) address learned at the switch and terminates the local ownership association for the MAC address. The notification mechanism generates a first notification indicating the local ownership association and a second notification indicating the termination of the local ownership association.

Claims

1. A switch, comprising:

an ownership management mechanism configured to;

maintain a local ownership association between the switch and a medium access control (MAC) address learned at the switch; and

terminate the local ownership association for the MAC address; and

a notification mechanism configured to;

generate a first notification indicating the local ownership association; and

generate a second notification indicating the termination of the local ownership association.

2. The switch of claim 1, wherein the second notification includes a first tier message indicating initiation of the termination and a second tier message indicating the termination of specific ownership association with the switch.

3. The switch of claim 1, wherein the switch is a Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) routing bridge (RBridge).

4. The switch of claim 1, wherein the ownership association is indicated by a bit in a bitmap, and wherein the bit is associated with the switch.

5. The switch of claim 1, wherein the ownership mechanism is further configured to terminate an ownership association for a MAC address learned at a remote switch, in response to receiving a notification from the remote switch.

6. The switch of claim 1, wherein the switch is part of a link aggregation;

wherein the switch further comprises an age-out control mechanism configured to create an age-out indication for the switch and a MAC address learned at the switch, in response to inactivity from the MAC address over a period of time; and

wherein the notification mechanism is further configured to generate a third notification associated with the age-out indication.

7. The switch of claim 6, wherein the age-out control mechanism is further configured to suppress local age-out notifications for the MAC address in response to creating the age-out indication.

8. A method, comprising:

maintaining a local ownership association between a switch and a MAC address learned at the switch;

terminating the local ownership association for the MAC address;

generating a first notification indicating the local ownership association; and

generating a second notification indicating the termination of the local ownership association.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the second notification includes a first tier message indicating initiation of the termination and a second tier message indicating the termination of specific ownership association with the switch.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the switch is a TRILL RBridge.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the ownership association is indicated by a bit in a bitmap, and wherein the bit is associated with the switch.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising terminating an ownership association for a MAC address learned at a remote switch, in response to receiving a notification from the remote switch.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the switch is part of a link aggregation;

and

further comprising;

creating an age-out indication for the switch and a MAC address learned at the switch, in response to inactivity from the MAC address over a period of time; and

generating a third notification associated with the age-out indication.

14. The switch of claim 13, further comprising suppressing local age-out notifications for the MAC address in response to creating the age-out indication.

15. A system, comprising a first switch and a second switch;

wherein the first switch comprises;

an ownership management mechanism configured to;

maintain a local ownership association between the first switch and a MAC address learned at the first switch; and

terminate the local ownership association for the MAC address; and

a notification mechanism configured to;

generate a first notification for the second switch indicating the local ownership association; and

generate a second notification for the second switch

indicating the termination of the local ownership association.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the second notification includes a first tier message indicating initiation of the termination and a second tier message indicating the termination of specific ownership association with the first switch.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the first switch and the second switch are TRILL RBridges.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the ownership association is indicated by a bit in a bitmap, and wherein the bit is associated with the first switch.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the ownership mechanism residing in the first switch is further configured to terminate an ownership association for a MAC address learned at the second switch, in response to receiving a notification from the second switch.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the first switch and the second switch are part of a link aggregation;

wherein the first switch further comprises an age-out control mechanism configured to create an age-out indication for the first switch and a MAC address learned at the first switch, in response to inactivity from the MAC address over a period of time; and

wherein the notification mechanism residing in the first switch is further configured to generate a third notification for the second switch associated with the age-out indication.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the age-out control mechanism residing in the first switch is further configured to suppress local age-out notifications for the MAC address in response to creating the age-out indication.