Patent ID: 9621461
Date: 2017-04-11
CPC Classifications: G06F,H04L

Claim:
1. A method for a network device to protect a Media Access Control (MAC) address table of a network switch connecting to the network device in a virtualized computing environment, the method comprising: in response to receiving a packet from a virtual machine with a MAC address supported by the network device: when the packet includes a request message, wherein the request message is one of an Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) request message, a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) discover message, or a DHCP request message, when the packet does not include the request message, sending, to the network switch, the packet without modifying a source MAC address associated with the packet; and in response to receiving a reply message in reply to the request message in a second packet from the network switch, the reply message having the shared MAC address as a destination MAC address, sending, to the virtual machine, the reply message.