Importance

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Abstract

A method and apparatus for providing spanning tree support are provided. According to one aspect of the present invention, a network device includes two or more ports that are part of a trunk. One of the two or more ports are selected for participation in a loop-free topology discovery protocol. Then, the loop-free topology discovery protocol is executed for the selected port. If the loop-free topology discovery protocol indicates the selected port is to be blocked, then all of the ports of the trunk are blocked. According to another aspect of the present invention, a set of states for association with each port of a network device is provided. The set of states includes a 'blocked' state in which both learning and forwarding are inhibited, a 'learn only' state in which learning is permitted and forwarding remains inhibited, and a 'non-blocked' state in which both learning and forwarding are permitted. Responsive to an indication from a loop-free topology discovery protocol that a port of the network device is to be unblocked, a state associated with the first port is set to the 'learn only' state for a predetermined amount of time. Then, after the predetermined amount of time, the state associated with the first port is set to the 'non-blocked' state.

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First Claim