Seamless spanning tree upgrade of a linecard
First Claim
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 a process that includes altering a spanning state protocol (STP) state of one or more ports of at least a restarting network portion of the first network device is imminent whereby the restarting process can no longer alter the STP state of one or more restarting ports of the first network device'"'"'s ports during the restart, maintaining an STP forwarding state of each restarting port that is in such STP forwarding state so as not to change such STP forwarding state to a blocking state before or during the restart under predefined conditions; and
during the restart, each of the restarting ports of the restarting network 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.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Disclosed are methods and apparatus for restarting a first network device having a plurality of ports for receiving and transmitting layer 2 data. The first network device belongs to a network of network devices. 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, a current state (such as forwarding) of each restarting port is maintained during the restart under predefined conditions. During the restart, each of the restarting ports of the restarting network device portion cooperate 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.
22 Citations
28 Claims
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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:
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when a restart of a process that includes altering a spanning state protocol (STP) state of one or more ports of at least a restarting network portion of the first network device is imminent whereby the restarting process can no longer alter the STP state of one or more restarting ports of the first network device'"'"'s ports during the restart, maintaining an STP forwarding state of each restarting port that is in such STP forwarding state so as not to change such STP forwarding state to a blocking state before or during the restart under predefined conditions; and during the restart, each of the restarting ports of the restarting network 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 Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A first network device operable to restart, wherein the first network device has a plurality of ports for receiving and transmitting layer 2 data, wherein the first network device belongs to a network of network devices, the first network device comprising:
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one or more processors; one or more memory, wherein at least one of the processors and memory are configured for; when a restart of a process that includes altering a spanning state protocol (STP) state of one or more ports of at least a restarting network portion of the first network device is imminent whereby the restarting process can no longer alter the STP state of one or more restarting ports of the first network device'"'"'s ports during the restart, maintaining an STP forwarding state of each restarting port that is in such STP forwarding state so as not to change such STP forwarding state to a blocking state before or during the restart under predefined conditions; and during the restart, each of the restarting ports of the restarting network 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 Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. An apparatus for 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 apparatus being in the form of the first network device and comprising:
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means for when a restart of a process that includes altering a spanning state protocol (STP) state of one or more ports of at least a restarting network portion of the first network device is imminent whereby the restarting process can no longer alter the STP of one or more restarting ports of the first network device'"'"'s ports during the restart, maintaining an STP forwarding state of each restarting port that is in such STP forwarding state so as not to change such STP forwarding state to a blocking state before or during the restart under predefined conditions; and means for during the restart, each of the restarting ports of the restarting network 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.
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28. A network system for restarting a first switch having a plurality of ports for receiving and transmitting layer 2 data, comprising:
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a plurality of switches including the first switch and at least one neighbor switch coupled to the first switch, the first switch being operable to; when a restart of a process that includes altering a spanning state protocol (STP) state of one or more ports of at least a restarting portion of the first switch is imminent whereby the restarting portion can no longer alter the STP state of one or more restarting ports of the first switch'"'"'s ports during the restart, maintaining such STP forwarding state of each restarting port so as not to change such STP forwarding state to a blocking state before or during the restart under predefined conditions; and during the restart, at least one of the restarting ports of the restarting portion cooperating with a peer port of the neighbor switch so as to prevent layer 2 loops in the network.
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Specification