Active ip forwarding in an event driven virtual link aggregation (vlag) system

A networking system, comprising:

• a first networking switch positioned at a boundary between Layer-2 (L2) and Layer-3 (L3), the first networking switch comprising a first virtual router redundancy protocol (VRRP) module;
• a second networking switch connected to the first networking switch via an interswitch link (ISL), the second networking switch being positioned at the boundary between L2 and L3 and comprising a second VRRP module;
• and
• an access switch positioned in L2, the access switch being capable of being connected to the first and second networking switches in a virtual link aggregation (vLAG),
• wherein the first VRRP module is adapted for performing active internet protocol (IP) forwarding when the second networking switch is not performing active IP forwarding,
• wherein the second VRRP module is adapted for performing active IP forwarding when the second networking switch is not performing active IP forwarding,
• wherein each of the first and second networking switches are adapted for indicating state events associated with the vLAG to each other via the ISL, the state events comprising:
• initialization (INIT), local switch active (LOCAL-UP), remote switch active (REMOTE-UP), and both switches active (FORMED), and
• wherein each of the first and second VRRP modules are adapted for indicating status of their respective switch associated with VRRP to each other via the ISL, the statuses comprising:
• initialization when a switch is not currently active (INIT), back-up status when (BACK-UP), and master status (MASTER).