Patent ID: 9356799
Filing Date: 2016-05-31
CPC Classification: H04L

Claim Text:
1. A method, comprising: transmitting, using a network device in an Ethernet ring, a frame to a peer device in the Ethernet ring using a first port in the Ethernet ring, wherein the first port in the Ethernet ring is determined using a medium access control (MAC) table and a protection table for the MAC table, wherein the MAC table comprises data indicating a first association between a MAC address and the peer device, and wherein the protection table comprises data indicating a second association between the peer device and the first port in the Ethernet ring; obtaining, using the network device, a message indicating that a link failure has occurred on the Ethernet ring; responsive to the message, updating, using the network device, the protection table to comprise data indicating a third association between the peer device and a second port in the Ethernet ring while maintaining the data in the MAC table; receiving, using the network device, a plurality of messages from a plurality of other peer devices, the plurality of messages indicating that the link failure has occurred; determining, using the network device, a location of the link failure using the plurality of messages; and receiving, using the network device, a frame corresponding to data transmitted from the MAC address, the frame corresponding to the data transmitted from the MAC address comprising a virtual local area network (VLAN) tag, wherein the second port is based on the location of the link failure.