Adtran Gmbh

David Perkinson

Mark Christian Rudolph

Timothy James Schlichter

Roberto Puon

Walter Stuart Venters

The switch port at which traffic associated with a specified media access control (MAC) address originates is searched for in a local area network (LAN). One or more switches receive a broadcast discovery message on a LAN subnet. Each switch determines whether the MAC address identified by the discovery message is associated with one of its ports. If the switch determines that the MAC address is associated with one of its ports, then the switch determines whether that port defines an edge of a searchable space. If the switch determines that that port defines an edge of the searchable space, then the switch issues a response message identifying the switch and the port.

Locating traffic origin in a network

A system and method detects within an IP network an offending network device that has been adversely affecting the IP network performance. A discovery protocol frame is propagated to successive network switches and is formed as a field having a query for inquiring within each network switch to which the frame is propagated whether the network switch has a database entry regarding the MAC address and switch port for the offending network device to locate the offending network device. This discovery protocol frame includes a command for any network switch that has the offending network device connected thereto to disable the switch port to which the offending network device is connected or block all data traffic from the MAC address of the offending network device.

System and method for locating offending network device and maintaining network integrity

In accordance with a non-limiting example, a communications system includes a plurality of Virtual Local Area Networks (VLAN) enabled switches interconnected together and each having a plurality of ports and configured into a plurality of VLAN's in a single topology map. The switches each comprise a processor and transceiver and configured to process and transport data packets and further comprising forwarding tables and operating in accordance with a Spanning Tree Protocol in a single topology map, for example, operating with the Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol and not having multiple topologies. When a topology changes occurs to a specified VLAN, the switches are configured to flush the forwarding tables only for the specified VLAN associated with the port of the switch whose state change caused the topology change.

Communications system and method for maintaining topology in a VLAN environment

In accordance with a non-limiting example, a communications method and system locates a network device that has been misconfigured by propagating within the same broadcast domain of an Ethernet communications network to which the network device is connected a discovery protocol frame and determining the Media Access Control (MAC) address of the remote device. A remote console terminal is connected for communications to the Ethernet communications network to the network device after discovering the network device. The remote console terminal communicates with the network device using Ethernet packets and configures correctly the network device such as by configuring a correct internet protocol (IP) address of the remote device.

System and method for locating and configuring network device

A network router initially communicates over a primary data path. Upon detection of an error condition associated with the primary data path, the network router initiates a layer 2 switch such that the communication occurring over the primary data path is switched to a backup data path. The layer 2 switch is preferably transparent to a layer 3 portion of the network router.

Network router that efficiently switches between a primary data path and a backup data path

A router in one embodiment of the present disclosure has first router logic and boot logic. The first router logic is configured to operate the router, and the boot logic is configured to receive updated router logic from a network and to perform a first reboot. The boot logic is further configured to initialize deactivation of the first router logic and initialize activation of the updated router logic during the first reboot such that a plurality of functions for the router are enabled during execution of the updated router logic. The boot logic is also configured to perform, in response to an error during execution of the updated router logic, a second reboot such that at least one of the functions is disabled.

System and method for remotely updating a network device

A binary decision tree-based arbitration scheme executable by a control processor of a time division multiplex (TDM)-based communication system is operative to select the next packet to be transmitted from a plurality of virtual circuits, any number of which may have one or more packets awaiting transmission over a serialized digital communication link. The transmission priority scheme contains N+1 sets of nodes containing 2&#x2212;1 nodes. A respective ith set of nodes comprises 2nodes, wherein i is greater than or equal to 1, and less than or equal to N+1. The nodes of a given set are connected to those of an adjacent set by binary-split branches. For each of the 2leaf nodes of the decision tree, information is stored representative of the transmission priority of a packet awaiting transmission from its associated communication port. In addition, associated with each node branching to respective pairs of downstream nodes (toward the virtual circuit ports) is a 'pointer' code that points to whichever one of its two branched nodes is associated with a higher packet transmission priority. As one traverses the decision tree along sequentially split branch paths from the highest priority leaf node toward the root node, the pointer code of the next immediately adjacent upstream node will always point to the node-branch path leading to the highest priority leaf node. Thus, the root node will point to the leaf node having the highest transmission priority.

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Madison, AL, United States of America

David Perkinson