Patent ID: 7889733

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving first forwarding information via an uplink interface; storing the first forwarding information in a local forwarding table; receiving a packet via a first port of a plurality of ports, wherein the packet comprises a destination address, and the uplink interface is different from the plurality of ports; determining whether the destination address corresponds to any of the plurality of ports, wherein the determining is based, at least in part, on the local forwarding table; in response to determining the destination address does not correspond to any of the plurality of ports, based at least in part on the local forwarding table, sending the packet and additional information associated with the packet to the uplink interface; receiving second forwarding information via the uplink interface, wherein the second forwarding information comprises results of a table lookup; comparing the second forwarding information with forwarding information stored in the local forwarding table; and sending an error notification to the uplink interface in response to detecting a conflict between the forwarding information stored in the local forwarding table and the second forwarding information.