Patent ID: 8514746

Claim:
A method comprising: monitoring, by a first device, a connection to a core network, the first device acting as a root device of a set of devices that implement a spanning tree using a spanning tree protocol, and a second device, of the set of devices, being connected to the core network; detecting, by the first device, a failure of the connection of the first device to the core network; and changing, by the first device and based on detecting the failure of the connection, a first priority value of the first device from a first numerical value to a second numerical value, a second priority value of the second device being equal to the first numerical value before and after changing the first priority value of the first device, the second numerical value being associated with a priority lower than a priority associated with the first numerical value, changing the first priority value causing, by operation of the spanning tree protocol, the second device to act as the root device of the spanning tree, and data communicated with the core network being communicated through the second device when the second device acts as the root device in the spanning tree.