Patent ID: 9529878
Filing Date: 2016-12-27
CPC Classification: G06F,H04L

Claim Text:
1. A method for supporting master negotiation in a network environment, comprising: providing a plurality of subnet managers (SMs), each of the plurality of subnet managers operating on a corresponding network switch; storing in each of the plurality of SMs, a corresponding set of one or more secret keys wherein the corresponding set includes all secret keys known to each respective SM; performing, by a negotiating SM of the plurality of SMs, subnet discovery on a subnet in the network environment via each other SM in the plurality of SMs in the subnet; discovering, by the negotiating SM, the set of known secret keys of each other SM in the plurality of SMs; checking, by the negotiating SM, the set of secret keys known to the negotiating SM to determine if the set of secret keys known to the negotiating SM includes each set of secret keys known to each other SM in the plurality of SMs; checking, by the negotiating SM, the set of secret keys known to the negotiating SM to determine if each set of secret keys known to each other SM in the plurality of SMs is a subset of the set of secret keys known to the negotiating SM; and selecting as a master SM one of the plurality of SMs, wherein the selected SM has the largest set of secret keys, and wherein the set of secret keys known to each other SM in the plurality of SMs is one of a same set, or a subset, of the set of secret keys known to the selected SM.