Patent ID: 7929427

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving designation information for a first port of each one of a plurality of bridges in a multi-bridge ring, wherein the first port of each one of a plurality of bridges is a first direction Ring Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RRSTP) port; receiving designation information for a second port of each one of a plurality of bridges in a multi-bridge ring, wherein the second port of each one of a plurality of bridges is a second direction RRSTP port and wherein the first direction around said ring is opposite the second direction around said ring; associating a first reserved RRSTP MAC address with the first direction port of each one of said bridges; associating a second reserved RRSTP MAC address with the second direction port of each one of said bridges; and configuring each one of said bridges to forward information transmission units using one of said reserved RRSTP MAC addresses.