MAC ADDRESS SYNCHRONIZATION IN A FABRIC SWITCH

摘要

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for facilitating synchronization of MAC addresses in a fabric switch. During operation, the system divides a number of media access control (MAC) addresses associated with devices coupled to an interface of the switch. The system then computes a checksum for a respective chunk of MAC addresses. In addition, the system broadcasts MAC address information of the chunk to facilitate MAC address synchronization in a fabric switch of which the switch is a member, and to manage the chunks and their corresponding checksum, thereby correcting an unsynchronized or race condition in the fabric switch.

主权项

1. A switch, comprising:
chunking circuitry configured to maintain a local copy of a chunk comprising a plurality of media access control (MAC) addresses, wherein the MAC address of the chunk are learned at a remote switch, and wherein the switch and the remote switch are members of a network of interconnected switches; MAC synchronization circuitry configured to:
obtain, from a message from the remote switch, a copy of the chunk; anddetermine whether to update the local copy of the chunk based on the message.