Patent ID: 7821920

Claim:
A flushing processing method of a switching device in a network using Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), the method comprising: determining, by a first switching device, whether there is a failure link; in response to a determination that there is the failure link, determining, by the first switching device, which one of a root port and a designated port connects to the failure link; in response to a determination that the root port connects to the failure link, updating, by the first switching device, a filtering database and changing port information of a host address registered to the root port into alternate port information; and sending, by the first switching device, a first Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) message through an alternate port; in response to a determination that there is no failure link, determining, by the first switching device, whether the first switching device receives a second Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) message from a second switching device; in response to a determination that the second Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) message is received from the second switching device, marking, as invalid, by the first switching device, all host address information registered to a port receiving the second Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) message; determining, by the first switching device, whether a data packet from any host is received; and in response to a determination that a data packet is received through a port not receiving the second Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) message, updating, by the first switching device, the filtering database and changing port information of all host addresses registered to the port receiving the second Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) message into information on a port receiving the data packet.