Patent ID: 7809859

Claim:
A network switching device, comprising: multiple ports for receiving and sending data; multiple switching processors, each having a storage, an output port specification module, an update requirement determination module, and a table update module, wherein the storage stores an address table recording a mapping of destination information including a destination address to one of the multiple ports, the output port specification module refers to at least a destination address included in the received data and the address table and further specifies an output port for sending the received data among the multiple ports, the update requirement determination module determines requirement or non-requirement for an update of the address table with regard to a source address included in the received data, and the table update module updates the address table in response to an update request; and a table manager for standardizing address tables respectively stored in the multiple switching processors based on an update detail of the address table that is received from at least one of the multiple switching processors, the table manager having an update detail acquisition module and an update request module, for receiving into the update detail acquisition module an update detail of the address table from at least one of the multiple switching processors upon determination of the requirement for update of the address table by the update requirement determination module in one of the multiple switching processors, and for simultaneously sending from the update request module the update request to each of the multiple switching processors, based on the obtained update detail.