Patent ID: 8077633

Claim:
A method, comprising: operating a first switch at a first border between a first network of a first protocol and a first network of a second protocol, the first switch interconnected via the first network of the first protocol with a second switch, the second switch at a second border between a second network of the first protocol and a second network of the second protocol, the first and second networks of the first protocol being interconnected; detecting, at the first switch, a merge of the first and second networks of the second protocol; and in response to detecting the merge of the first and second networks of the second protocol: blocking data packets from traversing through one or more network boundary ports of the first switch coupled to the first network of the first protocol; allowing protocol messages to flow between the first and second networks of the first protocol through the one or more network boundary ports of the first switch coupled to the first network of the first protocol; allowing the first and second networks of the first protocol to discover each other through the protocol messages and to prevent a loop; and in response to allowing the first and second networks of the first protocol to discover each other, unblocking the one or more network boundary ports of the first switch coupled to the first network of the first protocol to allow traversal of data packets.