Patent ID: 8855020

Claim:
A networked system comprising: a) a plurality of switches, connected to each other in a network; b) a plurality of groups of nodes, each group connected to one of the switches; c) a controller for each switch, each controller configured to: periodically select a master controller from the controllers of said switches, configure the switch it controls to utilize a specific Multiple Spanning Tree Instance (MSTI), through the use of a communication protocol including “using” and “assign” messages, said master controller accepting a “using” message from each controller to determine which MSTI each controller is using, and if multiple controllers are using the same MSTI, said master controller further sending an “assign” message to one or more of the controllers using the same MSTI, which assigns the one or more of the controllers to a new MSTI, said one or more of the controllers including said master controller.