Hitless restart mechanism for non-stop data-forwarding in the event of L3-mobility control-plane failure in a wireless switch

A network of peer wireless switches in a first mobility domain, comprising:

• a first wireless switch in the first mobility domain, wherein the first wireless switch comprises:
• a first processor comprising a control plane layer 3 (L3) mobility module configured to restart after the first wireless switch fails;
• a first transmitter configured to transmit a restart message to the peer wireless switches of the first wireless switch to announce that the first wireless switch has restarted and to begin re-establishing peering sessions with the peer wireless switches;
• a first database comprising a first control plane wireless client database (CPWCDb), a first data plane wireless client database (KWCDb), and a first home wireless client database (HWCDb) configured to store a set of wireless client devices for which the first wireless switch is the home wireless switch, wherein the first HWCDb is reset with the information from the first KWCDb upon restart of the first wireless switch,
• wherein the transmitter is configured to transmit a first message to the peer wireless switches, wherein the first message comprises the information in the first HWCDb after it is reset;
• a first receiver;
• wherein each peer wireless switch comprises:
• a respective receiver configured to receive information in the HWCDb of the first wireless switch;
• a respective control plane wireless client database (CPWCDb) configured to store the information from the HWCDb of the first wireless switch, and initially mark the wireless client devices in the respective CPWCDb as stale entries;
• a respective processor;
• a respective home wireless client database (HWCDb) configured to store a set of wireless client devices for which the particular peer wireless switch is the home wireless switch;
• a respective transmitter configured to transmit information from the respective HWCDb to the first wireless switch and any other peer wireless switches when a peering session is established between the first wireless switch and that particular peer wireless switch;
• wherein the respective receiver is configured to receive information from the respective HWCDbs of each the other peer wireless switches and the first wireless switch, wherein each respective HWCDb comprises the set of wireless client devices for which the particular peer wireless switch is the home wireless switch
• a respective data plane wireless client database (KWCDb);
• and
• wherein the first receiver is configured to receive information from the respective HWCDbs of each the other peer wireless switches, and wherein the first CPWCDb and the first KWCDb are configured to be refreshed with updated information about each of the wireless client devices in the mobility domain such that the first CPWCDb and the first KWCDb are synchronized with information from the respective HWCDbs of the peer wireless switches, and wherein the first transmitter is configured to transmit the updated HWCDb of the first wireless switch to the peer wireless switches;
• and
• wherein each of the respective receivers is configured to receive the information in the first HWCDb after it is reset, and the information from the respective HWCDbs of each the other peer wireless switches;
• wherein each of the respective processors is configured to refresh stale entries in its respective CPWCDb with the updated information from the first HWCDb such that the respective CPWCDb and the respective KWCDb are synchronized with the first HWCDb.