Patent ID: 9565100
Date: 2017-02-07
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. A method comprising: generating, at a network device, a merged table to serve as a media access control (MAC) table and as an adjacency table, wherein the merged table is configured for hash searches on the merged table as the MAC table to return associations between Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs) and MAC addresses, and configured for index searches on the merged table as the adjacency table to return egress ports for adjacent network devices to which packets are to be forwarded; updating an outdated MAC entry in the merged table by updating a flag for the outdated MAC entry, wherein the flag causes the outdated MAC entry to be utilized during the index searches on the merged table as the adjacency table and ignored when performing the hash searches on the merged table as the MAC table; receiving a first packet at an ingress port of the network device; hash searching the merged table as the MAC table in response to receiving the first packet; ignoring the outdated MAC entry in the merged table during the hash searching in response to the flag; receiving a second packet at the ingress port of the network device; index searching the merged table as the adjacency table in response to receiving the second packet; and locating the outdated MAC entry in the merged table in response to the searching of the merged table as the adjacency table.