MAC flush optimizations for ethernet rings

摘要

Techniques are identified for optimizing the MAC flush in Ethernet rings for faster traffic restoration. In one embodiment, flushing of MAC addresses is performed only once on receiving a first control message. For example, when a first control message is received, a network device may switch from a first state to a second state, which may indicate that the MAC addresses are not to be flushed if additional control messages are received. In another embodiment, flushing of MAC addresses is performed on one ring port rather than on both ring ports. For example, a flag field of a control message header may be used to determine on which port to flush. In another embodiment, flushing of MAC addresses is performed on only one ring port of an interconnection node. For example, the ring port can be determined using a flag field and possibly labels associated with the ring ports.

主权项

1. A network device, comprising:
a first port and a second port configured to connect the network device to a ring network, the ring network including a plurality of network devices including the network device; and a memory configured to store address information for each of the first port and the second port, wherein the address information for each of the first port and the second port includes one or more network addresses for one or more of the other network devices in the ring network; wherein the network device is configured to:
determine that a control message received at the first port indicates a failure in the ring network, the control message including a flag providing information about a path taken by the control message in the ring network, the flag indicating whether the path taken by the control message includes a network device designated as a Ring Protection Link (RPL) owner of the ring network;select, based on the flag, a port from among the first port and the second port, wherein the first port is selected when the flag indicates that the path did not include the RPL owner of the ring network, and wherein the second port is selected when the flag indicates that the path included the RPL owner of the ring network;clear the address information for the selected port; andforward the control message from the network device using the second port.