Distributed fabric management protocol

A method for managing a distributed fabric system in which a plurality of independent network elements are interconnected by inter-switch links (ISLs), the network elements being assigned to a same group, each network element having a device configuration (DC) stacking module and a switch discovery protocol (SDP) module that includes a member tracking layer (MTL) component, the method comprising:

• discovering each network element in the group;
• electing, by the MTL component of each network element, one of the network elements in the group as a master network element;
• issuing, by the elected master network element, a message for each network element in the group;
• maintaining, by the DC stacking module of the master network element, a record of all network elements that are currently members in the group in response to the messages issued by the master network element;
• receiving, by the master network element, a switch discovery protocol data unit (SDPDU) from a remote network element that is not a member of the group;
• sending, by the master network element, in response to receiving the SDPDU from the remote network element, a message to the remote network element by which the master network element identifies itself to the remote network element as master of the group;
• and
• determining, by the remote network element based on information carried by the message received from the master network element by which the master network element identifies itself as master of the group, whether the remote network element is presently ready to join the group;
• maintaining, by the MTL component of the master network element, switch information about all network elements that are currently members in the group learned over the ISLs;
• employing, by the MTL component of the master network element, a timer to age out the remote network element if no SDPDU is received from the remote network element for a specified duration;
• clearing, by the MTL component of the master network element, switch information learned over a given ISL when the given ISL goes down;
• and
• sending a message by the MTL component of the master network element to the DC-stacking module of the master network element to notify of any change in membership in the group resulting from a newly discovered network element or from a departure of a network element.