Patent ID: 6888802

Claim:
A method for reporting address information in a distributed communication system having a plurality of distributed address databases, wherein each address database includes a number of locally owned address entries including locally owned address information and a number of remotely owned address entries including remotely owned address information, the method comprising: retrieving a list of locally owned address information from each of the distributed address databases, comprising, determining a reporting module from among the plurality of interconnected modules, the plurality of interconnected modules comprising the reporting module and one or more other interconnected modules, retrieving a first list of locally owned address information by the reporting module from the address database maintained by the reporting module, which comprises retrieving a predetermined number of locally owned address entries from the address database, and retrieving a second list of locally owned address information by the reporting module from each of the other interconnected modules; sorting the retrieved address information according to a predetermined sorting scheme, which comprises sorting the address information by the reporting module according to the predetermined sorting scheme; and reporting the sorted address information, which comprises reporting the sorted address information by the reporting module; and wherein each address database is maintained by one of a plurality of interconnected modules within the communication system, where each module includes a number of interfaces, each locally owned address entry includes a locally owned address and an interface identifier identifying an interface from which the locally owned address is learned, and each remotely owned address entry includes a remotely owned address and a module identifier identifying a module from which the remotely owned address is learned, and wherein the locally owned address entries are maintained in lexicographical order by address, and wherein retrieving the first list of locally owned address information by the reporting module from its address database comprises retrieving the predetermined number of locally owned address entries beginning with a first locally owned address entry that is lexicographically greater than a predetermined starting address.