Patent ID: 8270318

Claim:
A method comprising: constructing, with a network device, a set of ports of a first network switch that collectively include media access control (MAC) addresses of a common set of MAC addresses between the first network switch and a second network switch; constructing, with the network device, a set of ports of the second network switch that collectively include the MAC addresses of the common set of MAC addresses; determining, with the network device, that a link exists between a first port of the set of ports of the first network switch and a first port of the set of ports of the second network switch when the first port of the set of ports of the first network switch includes a first MAC address and a second MAC address, a second port of the set of ports of the second network switch includes the first MAC address, a third port of the set of ports of the second network switch includes the second MAC address, and a second port of the set of ports of the first network switch includes a third MAC address that is also included in the first port of the set of ports of the second network switch; and when the link is determined to exist, recording, with the network device, existence of the link between the first port of the set of ports of the first network switch and the first port of the set of ports of the second network switch in a computer-readable storage medium.