Cisco Technology, Inc.

Gary William Kramling

Kenneth Harvey Potter, Jr

Kara J Adams

John K Fitzgerald

David A Carroll

A Distributed Ring Protocol (DRiP) arrangement includes a database and protocol for maintaining and distributing information within a distributed token ring (TR) bridge having a logical switch fabric that is distributed over a TR switching network of switches interconnected by trunk links, such as Inters witch Link (ISL) trunks. The DRiP information is used by switches within the ISL switched fabric to determine the status (configured and/or activated) and association (within a switch) of ports of the distributed bridge.

Distributed ring protocol and database

A backup CRF VLAN arrangement provides an alternate, redundant path for traffic between undistributed Concentrator Relay Functions (CRFs) located on separate switches interconnected by trunk links of a distributed token ring bridge. The backup CRF virtual local area network (VLAN) arrangement defines a backup network path which may be utilized if a primary active path is not a valid path to a backup network. Notably, the backup network comprises a special type of CRF that is distributed among the switches, but that has only one port active at any given time.

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Raleigh, NC, United States of America

Gary William Kramling