Patent ID: 7995499

Claim:
A method, comprising: configuring one or more ports of an access layer network device connected to a distribution layer network device to suppress transmission of one or more network topology change information messages to the distribution layer network device of a data network; detecting a state change to a forwarding state on the one or more ports of the access layer network device; and in response to the detecting of the state change, transmitting a predetermined data packet on the one or more ports of the access layer network device whose state has changed to the forwarding state wherein the predetermined data packet includes one or more of a MAC address table move update (MMU) packet or a dummy multicast packet, or combinations thereof wherein in response to the configuring, no network topology change information messages are transmitted by the access layer network device from the one or more ports changed to the forwarding state, despite the detected state change of the one or more ports of the access layer network device.