초록 ▼

A method and apparatus for providing spanning tree support are provided. According to one aspect of the present invention, a network device includes two or more ports that are part of a trunk. One of the two or more ports are selected for participation in a loop-free topology discovery protocol. The

A method and apparatus for providing spanning tree support are provided. According to one aspect of the present invention, a network device includes two or more ports that are part of a trunk. One of the two or more ports are selected for participation in a loop-free topology discovery protocol. Then, the loop-free topology discovery protocol is executed for the selected port. If the loop-free topology discovery protocol indicates the selected port is to be blocked, then all of the ports of the trunk are blocked. According to another aspect of the present invention, a set of states for association with each port of a network device is provided. The set of states includes a "blocked" state in which both learning and forwarding are inhibited, a "learn only" state in which learning is permitted and forwarding remains inhibited, and a "non-blocked" state in which both learning and forwarding are permitted. Responsive to an indication from a loop-free topology discovery protocol that a port of the network device is to be unblocked, a state associated with the first port is set to the "learn only" state for a predetermined amount of time. Then, after the predetermined amount of time, the state associated with the first port is set to the "non-blocked" state.

대표청구항 ▼

[ What is claimed is:] [1.] A method of configuring a blocked port to receive configuration messages, the method comprising the steps of:providing an input interface address register in each of a plurality of ports for filtering packets destined to addresses that do not match an address contained th

[ What is claimed is:] [1.] A method of configuring a blocked port to receive configuration messages, the method comprising the steps of:providing an input interface address register in each of a plurality of ports for filtering packets destined to addresses that do not match an address contained therein;executing a loop-free topology discovery protocol for a first port of the plurality of ports; andif the loop-free topology discovery protocol indicates the first port is to be blocked, then writing a multicast address associated with configuration messages into the input interface address register of the first port, whereby the first port will subsequently accept configuration messages while filtering all other packets.