Patent ID: 7733807

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving at a first ring network station a frame that has been flooded onto a ring network by a second ring network station; learning information from the frame about at least one source associated with the frame; setting a flood next transmission indicator value associated with the information learned about the at least one source associated with the frame, wherein the flood next transmission indicator value indicates that a subsequent transmission to the at least one source associated with the frame should be flooded to the ring network; and subsequent to said setting the flood next transmission value, receiving at the first ring network station a second frame from a remote client coupled to the first ring network station through a second network, retrieving the flood next transmission indicator value associated with the information learned about the at least one source associated with the frame, causing a third frame to be flooded on the ring network, wherein the third frame comprises information from the second frame, and setting a second flood next transmission indicator value associated with the information learned about the at least one source associated with the frame, wherein the second flood next transmission indicator value indicates that a subsequent transmission to the at least one source associated with the frame should not be flooded to the ring network.