Use of Partitions to Reduce Flooding and Filtering Database Size Requirements in Large Layer Two Networks

摘要

A network component, comprising a memory unit comprising a filtering database (FDB), wherein the FDB comprises a medium access control (MAC) address and a Virtual Local Area Networks (VLAN) Identifier (VID) pair for each of a plurality of end-stations associated with an edge-district partition of a network, wherein the edge-district partition is associated with the network component, and wherein the FDB comprises a wildcard FDB entry corresponding to each VLAN associated with the network component, and a logic unit coupled to the ingress ports and the egress ports, wherein the logic unit is configured to reduce flooding in the edge-district partition of the network; wherein the logic unit is configured to forward a received frame, having a destination MAC address and a VID for which there is not an exact match in the FDB, towards a core-bridge without flooding based on the wildcard entry in the FDB.