Patent ID: 8902793

Claim:
A method for processing signals in a communications system having a plurality of nodes connected to a communications network, the method comprising: creating a token at a root node of the plurality of nodes as part of a sequential algorithm that is completed by one or more of the plurality of nodes, a node with the token being an active node, the algorithm including detecting, by the active node, if there is a loop in the communications network in which a broadcast packet has a path back to a sending node of the broadcast packet over active links in the communications network; when the active node does not detect a loop, terminating the algorithm; when the active node does detect a loop, disabling any network ports at the active node that are part of the loop and which can be disabled, and passing the token to another node in the loop via an outgoing network port which has not been disabled, and when the another node is not the root node, the another node becomes the active node by receiving the token and resumes the algorithm at the detecting step, and when the another node is the root node the algorithm is terminated.