Patent ID: 7392520

Claim:
A method for upgrading software in a control plane, comprising: a) sending notification to one or more second bridges that a first bridge is scheduled for a control plane software upgrade thereby disturbing a first state of operation; b) suspending VLAN registration information in the one or more second bridges while the software upgrade is taking place; c) restoring the first state of the first bridge after the software upgrade has taken place; and d) sending notification to the one or more second bridges of the network that the software upgrade of the first bridge has been completed; wherein the first bridge operates in a network containing a plurality of bridges and the first bridge and the one or more of the second bridges form part of a VLAN; and wherein the software upgrade provides enhanced bridge functions including one or more of assignment of port status, registering. deregistering and maintaining VLAN membership of the ports, and upgrading bridge programming.