Patent ID: 8005013
Filing Date: 2011-08-23
Classification: H04L,Y02D

Abstract:
1. A method for discovering connectivity between devices in a virtual local area network (VLAN), comprising: receiving a unique identifier from a device in the VLAN; determining if the unique identifier is from a virtual connect (VC) module; identifying a link to the device as being a potential internal link in the VLAN when the unique identifier is from the VC module and as being an external link in the VLAN when the unique identifier is not from the VC module; wherein when the link to the device is identified as an external link, the link to the device is labeled as an external link; wherein when the link to the device is identified as a potential internal link, determining if a domain credential of the device matches a shared secret and labeling the link to the device as an internal link if the domain credential of the device matches the shared secret and as an external link if the domain credential of the device does not match the shared secret.