Patent ID: 8159936

Claim:
A computer-implemented method in a network device, the method comprising: maintaining an age-bit array in a memory of the network device, the age-bit array comprising an age-bit for each of a plurality of forwarding entries of the network device, each of the age-bits in the age-bit array indicating whether a corresponding one of the plurality of forwarding entries is valid; initially flooding packets on ports of the network device in response to a topology change in a network; clearing the age-bit array responsive to the topology change rendering the plurality of forwarding entries of the network device as invalid; and conditionally flooding packets on the ports of the network device responsive to the clearing of the age-bit array, wherein the conditional flooding comprises one of the following operations for each port among the ports of the network device: a) confirming that flooding should continue on the port based on the age-bit associated with the forwarding entry for the port being cleared indicating the forwarding entry is invalid; and b) terminating flooding on the port based on the age-bit associated with the forwarding entry for the port indicating the forwarding entry has been re-learned and is valid.