Patent ID: 7876710

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, at a first network device, a packet including a destination address associated with a second network device; identifying, using the first network device, a destination address entry, in a forwarding table, based on the destination address, where the destination address entry includes an address identifier; identifying, from the address identifier, and using the first network device, a timestamp associated with the address identifier; identifying, using the first network device, a timestamp associated with an event identifier stored in a spanning tree table (STT) that is associated with the first network device; comparing, using the first network device, the timestamp associated with the address identifier and the timestamp associated with the event identifier; determining, using the first network device, and based on the comparison, whether an event has occurred; and forwarding the packet based on information stored in an event response field, stored in the STT, if it is determined that the event has occurred, where the event response field indicates whether the first network device is to flush one or more address identifiers, flood a network with the packet, or redirect the packet to an alternate path to the second network device.