| 摘要 |
A method for discovering addressing information within a network switch for an unknown MAC address received as a destination address of a packet. Where prior techniques flooded the network with the received packet, switch to switch protocols of the present invention reduce the volume of such overhead network traffic required to discover the addressing information. In particular, the present invention propagates query messages through network switches in a load balance domain (a group of switches cooperable in accordance with the protocols described herein). The query messages are propagated using a pruned broadcast tree to reduce the number of transmissions required to reach all switches in the load balance domain. The propagated query message eventual elicits a response from the device which owns the previously unknown destination address. Switches and devices outside the load balance domain are similarly probed for the unknown destination address using link level test messages which elicit a response from the device owning the unknown address without impacting the network higher layer protocols. These techniques reduce the volume of network traffic required to obtain the desired addressing information by forcing the response from the device owning the previously unknown destination address and constructing a unicast path to that device. Creating the unicast path obviates the need to flood the unknown destination address on the network.
|
