Patent ID: 8902891

Claim:
A method of managing broadcasts and multicasts by a network device in a network comprising: receiving a broadcast or multicast packet having a packet number; storing the packet number of the received broadcast or multicast packet in a memory; receiving another broadcast or multicast packet having a packet number; comparing the packet number of the another broadcast or multicast packet to the packet number of the broadcast or multicast packet stored in the memory; in response to the packet number of the received another broadcast or multicast packet being smaller than or equal to the packet number stored in the memory, dropping the received another broadcast or multicast packet; in response to the packet number of the received another broadcast or multicast packet being greater than the packet number stored in the memory, processing the another broadcast or multicast packet; determining whether the received another broadcast or multicast packet is an update commander packet, wherein the update commander packet is to change a designation of a stack commander switch; and in response to the received another broadcast or multicast packet being an update commander packet, and in response to a commander identifier (ID) specified in the received another broadcast or multicast packet being different from a commander ID stored in the memory, updating the commander ID stored in the memory to change the designation of the stack commander switch.