Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (publ)

Thorsten Kaiser

Thomas Alberty

Herbert Leuwer

Torsten Mueller

A method of reconfiguring a data unit communication network that comprises bridge nodes is described. Each bridge node comprises two or more ports for receiving and sending data units, a controller for controlling said bridge node and for handling received data units, and a record for associating data unit address information with port identification information. The controller is capable of querying said record for determining which one or more ports to forward a received data unit to. The method comprises performing a topology reconfiguration procedure for said data unit communication network when detecting an occurrence of any one of one or more topology reconfiguration conditions, and performing a purge procedure of the records of the bridge nodes when detecting an occurrence of an indication of an upcoming topology reconfiguration of the data unit communication network, the indication being different from any of said topology reconfiguration conditions, and continuing to handle data units in the bridge nodes during the purge procedure.

Network reconfiguration method

A network bridge comprising two ports for connection to two networks, a spanning tree controller and a wireless bridge link controller for each port. The ports employ an adaptive modulation technique. The wireless bridge link controller is connected to the port to exchange physical layer information with said port. When the port detects a change of its PHY mode, it sets the path cost of the link to a value configured for the new PHY mode and forces the bridge to recalculate its spanning tree. The wireless bridge link controller is also connected to the spanning tree controller. If the bridge detects that it has not received BPDUs for a certain time period and the timer will expire soon, the bridge forces the port, via the wireless bridge link controller, to use a more robust PHY mode.

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Thorsten Kaiser