Patent ID: 8107383

Claim:
A method comprising: retrieving a forwarding database (FDB) entry from a forwarding device on a ring network with an automatic protection switching domain; determining an output port associated with the FDB entry; inspecting a field in the FDB entry, the field to indicate whether the output port is susceptible to invalidity upon a fault in the ring network; inspecting a port field associated with the output port in a port array, wherein inspecting the port field is in response to inspecting the field in the FDB entry; detecting a fault in the ring network, the ring network having a master node connected to at least one transit node, each node linked to an adjacent node by at least one of a primary port or a secondary port, the fault indicating a failed link between adjacent nodes; unblocking the secondary port of the master node in response to detecting the fault; and flooding traffic through all communicating ports in the ring network in response to inspecting the port field in the port array and unblocking the secondary port, the communicating ports including the primary port and the unblocked secondary port of the master node, wherein flooding the traffic until respective forwarding database entries on the master node and on the at least one transit node have been reestablished.