The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 27, 2001
Filed:
Jan. 29, 1999
Vipin Kumar Jain, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Peter Si-Sheng Wang, Cupertino, CA (US);
3Com Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and system for intelligently selecting the multicast filtering mode of a port in a switch. In one embodiment the present invention determines whether a client is coupled to a port of a switch. In such an embodiment, provided that a client is coupled to the port, the present invention monitors the client to determine if the client is 802.1p compliant. Next, in this embodiment, provided that the client is 802.1p compliant, the present invention automatically selects a Filter Unregistered Groups mode for the port to which the client is coupled. Conversely, if the client is not 802.1p compliant, the present invention selects a Forward All Groups mode for the port to which the client is coupled. In so doing, the present invention intelligently selects the optimal multicast filter mode for a switch and its connected clients. Additionally, the present invention eliminates the need for expensive, time-consuming, and error-prone network administrator intervention.