Patent ID: 8861403

Claim:
A method comprising: partitioning a layer-2 network that includes a cloud switch into a plurality of segments, each segment including one or more cloud switch domains that are coupled via a logical port to a corresponding one of a plurality of internal logical shared media links of the cloud switch; provisioning one of the plurality of internal logical shared media links as a hub internal logical shared media link and one or more remaining internal logical shared media links as spoke internal logical shared media links; executing a spanning tree protocol (STP) within each segment of the plurality of segments, the logical port of each cloud switch domain to advertise a pseudo root bridge identifier (ID) for the internal logical shared media link coupled thereto during execution of the STP to cause the internal logical shared media link to appear attached to a Root, the advertised pseudo root bridge ID of the hub internal logical shared media link to have a higher priority than the pseudo root bridge ID of the spoke internal logical shared media links to establish a hub and spoke relationship among the segments; electing a port of the cloud switch domains coupled to each spoke internal logical shared media link as a designated interconnect port (DIP); and if the DIP of the cloud switch domains coupled to a particular spoke internal logical shared media link is changed, propagating topology change notification (TCNs) to the cloud switch domains coupled to the hub internal logical shared media link; wherein one of the plurality of segments is associated with the hub internal logical shared media link as a hub segment and one or more other segments of the plurality of segments are associated with the spoke internal logical shared media links as spoke segments.