Patent ID: 9130870
Filing Date: 2015-09-08
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of identifying clusters of switches in a network, wherein the switches in the clusters have respective controller clients and are controlled by an associated controller server and wherein the clusters of switches are isolated from each other by at least one intervening switch that is not controlled by the controller server, the method comprising: with the controller server, generating a network topology data structure for the network; with the controller server, processing entries in the network topology data structure to identify the clusters, wherein the at least one intervening switch forwards network packets between the clusters of switches; with the controller server, assigning cluster identifiers to each entry that correspond to the clusters; with the controller server, generating per-cluster forwarding databases from the assigned cluster identifiers; and with the controller server, providing forwarding tables for the switches based on the per-cluster forwarding databases.