Patent ID: 7729291
Filing Date: 2010-06-01
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of installing second switching device information for devices coupled to a first switching device via at least one second switching device, comprising: arranging for a plurality of messages to flow from each of the devices through at least one of the at least one second switching device to enable said at least one of the at least one second switching device to retain switching information regarding the devices for a period of time longer than said at least one of the at least one second switching device would retain said information solely from a single message sent from the devices; at a system coupled to the at least one second switching device via a network, retrieving device forwarding information from at least one of the at least one second switching device, the device forwarding information being stored by the at least one of the at least one second switching device due to a message corresponding to at least one of the devices having transited the at least one of the at least one second switching device from which the device forwarding information was retrieved, the device forwarding information for at least one of the devices coupled to the network comprising the first switching device and the at least one second switching device not being stored on the first switching device, or for at least one of the devices not coupled to the network being stored on the first switching device; responsive to the device forwarding information retrieved, identifying as being in a first set of devices, at least one of the devices for which information was retrieved, but for which information is not already statically installed on the first switching device; from the system via the network, statically installing on the first switching device, for at least one of the at least one devices identified as being in the first set, at least one of a) at least one identifier of the at least one of the devices, responsive to said at least one of the devices being in the first set and b) an identifier corresponding to the second switching device from which device forwarding information for each said device was retrieved; responsive to the device forwarding information retrieved, identifying as being in a second set, at least one of the devices for which information was not retrieved and for which information is statically installed on the first switching device but the information statically installed is no longer valid; and for at least one of the at least one of the devices identified as being in the second set, removing from static installation on the first switching device at least one of a) any identifiers of one or more devices in the second set and b) the identifier of the second switching device from which device forwarding information for the device was not retrieved, at least in a recent time period.