Patent ID: 7916730

Claim:
A method for preventing switches in a network from sending excessive flood packets, the network routing packets between a source station having a source address and a destination station in the network having a destination address, the method comprising: receiving a first packet directed toward the destination station over the network via an incoming traffic switch, the incoming traffic switch including a table without the destination address; flooding the first packet over a plurality of switches including a front facing switch; receiving the flooded first packet at the front facing switch coupled to the destination station, the front facing switch having a table including the source address of the packet; flushing the source address of the first packet from the table of the front facing switch in response to receiving the flooded first packet at the front facing switch; receiving a response packet at the front facing switch from the destination station directed toward the source station; flooding the response packet to the incoming traffic switch; receiving the flooded response packet at the incoming traffic switch; and updating the table of the incoming traffic switch with the destination address of the destination station.