Patent ID: 6570881
Filing Date: 2003-05-27
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A packet based high-speed communications mesh, comprising:a plurality of trunk switches; trunked network interfaces including links connecting said trunk switches to form a trunk cluster; edge devices connected to said trunk cluster via trunked links, said trunked links providing a physical connection from each trunk switch to each edge device; a trunk switch agent for monitoring link status of links of a trunk switch connected to edge devices and/or another trunk switch, building an identifier list, said identifier list providing a map of a unique identifier, identifying a connected edge device and the associated link of the trunk switch, updating said identifier list so as to indicate that a particular edge device corresponding to a trunk port ID no longer is associated with a particular link of a particular trunk switch, checking the identifier list to determine if any other remaining links are associated with the particular edge device of the trunk port ID, if no more links remain associated with the edge device for the particular trunk switch, sending a signal in the form of a message indicating the list of the particular edge device with the particular trunk port ID to other trunk switches in the trunk cluster have connectivity to the particular edge device; upon receiving a response indicating a link exists between another trunk switch in the trunk cluster and the particular edge device, bringing down and then bringing back up all links of the particular switch whereby edge devices stop transmitting to the particular trunk switch and direct traffic of the particular edge device to the other trunk switches.