Patent ID: 8861338

Claim:
A method comprising: interconnecting a first aggregation device with a second aggregation device using an Inter Switch Trunk (IST), wherein said first aggregation device and said second aggregation device operate concurrently and function as a single device; learning, by said first aggregation device a Media Access Control (MAC) address of said second aggregation device; learning, by said second aggregation device a MAC address of said first aggregation device; synchronizing Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) addresses between said first aggregation device and said second aggregation device; when said first aggregation device receives an IPv6 packet destined to said second aggregation device said first aggregation device performs an IPv6 route lookup on a destination address of said IPv6 packet and forwards said packet to a next hop for said IPv6 packet, and when said second aggregation device receives an IPv6 packet destined to said first aggregation device said second aggregation device performs an IPv6 route lookup on a destination address of said IPv6 packet and forwards said packet to a next hop for said IPv6 packet, wherein each of the first aggregation device and second aggregation device performs the respective IPv6 route lookup when both the first aggregation device and second aggregation device are at the same time; detecting, by a first one of said first aggregation device and said second aggregation device, an IST failure and modifying local IPv6 forwarding and Neighbor Discovery records to terminate IPv6 traffic sent to a second one of said first aggregation device and said second aggregation device; and transmitting by said first one of said first aggregation device and said second aggregation device, unsolicited Router Advertisement messages for all prefixes of said second one of said first aggregation device and said second aggregation device.