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:
Jul. 12, 2016
Filed:
May. 13, 2013
Foundry Networks, Llc, San Jose, CA (US);
Andrew Tai-Chin Kuo, Newark, CA (US);
Gurudeep Kamat, Mountain View, CA (US);
Jordi Moncada-Elias, Milpitas, CA (US);
Ivy Pei-Shan Hsu, Pleasanton, CA (US);
Rajkumar Jalan, Saratoga, CA (US);
Foundry Networks, LLC, San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
The system, method, and article of manufacture of the present invention allows multiple customers connected to a common external network to each implement a layer 2 redundancy protocol, such as the spanning tree protocol, in order to prevent layer 2 loops. Accordingly, a method is presented for providing an independent loop free layer 2 topology between a external network and a customer network comprising tagging control packets originating on the customer network with a unique identifier and tunneling the control packets received from the customer network between a plurality of boundary interface devices at the external network such that the control packets are routed back to the customer network based on the presence of the unique identifier in the control packet. The layer 2 redundancy protocol on the customer network converges based at least in part on the presence of control packets appearing on more than one port on the customer network.