Ethernet automatic protection switching
AssigneeExtreme Networks, Inc.
InventorsMichael Yip, Sunil P. Shah, Michelle M. Ragonese
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and apparatus is provided for automatic protection switching in a ring network by creating a protection domain having a control vlan and protected data vlans and designating a master node and transit nodes connected by a primary port and a secondary port. The master node blocks the secondary port for data vlan traffic until it detects a fault either by notice from a transit node or by polling. When a fault is detected, the master node unblocks the secondary port for data vlan traffic. When the fault is restored, the transit node temporarily blocks the restored port to data vlan traffic thereby preventing a loop. Each time the secondary port is blocked and unblocked, the forwarding databases on all the nodes are flushed.
Claims4
A method comprising:
- blocking data traffic received on a data virtual network at a master node in a ring network;
- receiving on a control virtual network at the master node an indication of a failure to transmit data traffic on the data virtual network;
- and
- unblocking data traffic received on the data virtual network at the master node in response to detecting the failure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.