Patent ID: 7483383

Claim:
A switching device in a stack switch system comprising a plurality of stack switches operably coupled in a series, the switching device comprising: two stack ports, at least one of the stack ports operably coupled to one of the plurality of stack switches; and a stack manager configured to: identify one or more of the plurality of stack switches without an operational stack switch identifier; and automatically assign each of said one or more stack switches one of a set of operational stack switch identifiers based on a time each of said one or more stack switches became operational, wherein said stack manager listens on said stack ports for co-related keep-alive messages that employ message sequence numbers to establish a relationship with the preceding keep-alive message sent to determine each said stack switches become operational; wherein the set of operational stack switch identifiers comprise sequential integers, and wherein the sequential operational stack switch identifiers are assigned in accordance with a sequential position of said one or more stack switches in the series.