Patent ID: 7965711

Claim:
A method provided in a hybrid node operating first and second bridging protocols, the method allowing for an incremental transitioning of nodes in a network from the first bridging protocol to the second bridging protocol, wherein said nodes are coupled to end stations, wherein the first bridging protocol shares Media Access Control (MAC) addresses of end stations amongst all nodes and end stations directly coupled to each other with the first bridging protocol, and wherein nodes operating the first bridging protocol store the shared end station MAC addresses in a MAC address table, the method comprising the steps of: operating the first bridging protocol on a first port of the hybrid node, wherein the first port is coupled to a first node operating the first bridging protocol and not the second bridging protocol; operating the second bridging protocol on a plurality of other ports of the hybrid node; receiving first unicast packets on said first port and second and third unicast packets on the plurality of other ports, wherein the unicast packets contain destination MAC addresses that are unknown to the hybrid node; and limiting with the hybrid node the number of MAC addresses that the first node stores in its MAC address table, the step of limiting comprising the steps of: broadcasting the first unicast packets out the plurality of other ports; broadcasting the second unicast packets out those of the plurality of other ports on which they were not received; broadcasting the third unicast packets out the first port, wherein each of the third unicast packets has the same destination MAC address as one of the second unicast packets, and wherein each of the third unicast packets was received at a time by which its destination MAC address would have been learned responsive to said step of broadcasting the second unicast packets if the corresponding destination end station were coupled to one of the plurality of other ports.