Patent ID: 8442064

Claim:
A first network device comprising: a plurality of input ports to receive data units, a particular data unit, of the data units, including a destination address corresponding to an intended destination for the particular data unit; a plurality of output ports to transmit the data units from the first network device via a plurality of output links; a forwarding table to store a plurality of entries, a particular entry, of the plurality of entries, defining a correspondence between the destination address and an output identifier for the first network device, the output identifier including information identifying: an aggregated link that represents a first plurality of possible output links, or a virtual aggregated link that represents a second plurality of possible output links, and the virtual aggregated link being associated with a second network device; and one or more processors to: receive information indicating that a link corresponding to the second network device has failed, select, based on the information indicating that the link corresponding to the second network device has failed, particular output links, of the second plurality of possible output links, that connect the first network device to a third network device that is associated with the link and the second network device, and remove the particular output links from the virtual aggregated link.