Patent ID: 8537720

Claim:
A method comprising: generating, independently of a spanning tree protocol instance, a first protocol message identifying a best root node of a spanning tree implemented by an access domain; transmitting, by a first aggregation node, the first protocol message to a plurality of access nodes of the access domain; receiving data traffic from the plurality of access nodes, each access node of the plurality of access nodes implementing a spanning tree protocol instance that selects the best root node as a root node of the spanning tree; and aggregating the data traffic and other data traffic of a plurality of access domains and transmitting the aggregated data traffic to an aggregation network; wherein generating the first protocol message independently of the spanning tree protocol instance comprises: generating, by the first aggregation node, the first protocol message, the first protocol message identifying the first aggregation node as the best root node, the first protocol message being stateless and having a format of a spanning tree protocol message though the first aggregation node does not implement a spanning tree protocol instance.