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:
Dec. 06, 2011
Filed:
Jul. 27, 2009
Russell I. White, Holly Springs, NC (US);
Ian Michael Charles Shand, Surry, GB;
Alvaro Enrique Retana, Raleigh, NC (US);
Russell I. White, Holly Springs, NC (US);
Ian Michael Charles Shand, Surry, GB;
Alvaro Enrique Retana, Raleigh, NC (US);
Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
The designated forwarding device functionality for forwarding of packets originated on a broadcast link among layer 2 is shared among multiple forwarding devices of different adjacency networks. As these networks do not form adjacencies, the forwarding devices do not natively participate in a same spanning tree for determining how to forward packets, and a designated forwarding device is used for forwarding packets originated on the common broadcast link. Distributing the role of a designated forwarding device among multiple of the forwarding devices provides a means for more efficiently forwarding packets to their destinations.