Patent ID: 9397911
Filing Date: 2016-07-19
CPC Classification: H04L

Claim Text:
1. A method for notifying bridges connected to a Rapid Spanning Tree Algorithm and Protocol (RSTP) network of a root bridge failure comprising: (a) detecting, by at least one root failure suspicion notification (RFSN) capable bridge directly connected to a root bridge, a failure in a connection to the root bridge; (b) generating, by the at least one RFSN capable bridge directly connected to the root bridge, a RFSN bridge protocol data unit (BPDU) comprising; (c) propagating the RFSN BPDU to adjacent bridges in the network; and (c1) upon receipt of the RFSN BPDU by a receiving RFSN capable bridge in the network, determining if a time out period has been previously commenced and has not timed out, wherein the time out period would have been commenced if the receiving RFSN capable bridge had previously received a previous RFSN BPDU.