Patent ID: 7817580

Claim:
A method for distributing link state information, the method comprising: receiving an incoming link state record from a peer node at a local node, the incoming link state record including the link state information; transmitting outgoing link state records on local links associated with the local node; transmitting an outgoing link state acknowledgement to the peer node; computing a new broadcast tree using the link state information; determining port roles for a plurality of ports associated with the local node; determining root bridge values for the plurality of ports associated with the local node; dropping traffic on selected ports having undergone port role changes until incoming synchronization acknowledgement packets associated with the selected ports are received; dropping the traffic on the selected ports having increased root bridge values until the incoming synchronization acknowledgement packets associated with the selected ports are received; and blocking the traffic on the selected ports having decreased root bridge values until the incoming synchronization acknowledgement packets associated with the selected ports are received.