System for managing topology of a network in spanning tree data structure by maintaining link table and parent table in each network node

摘要

A topology manager within a data communication network including a number of nodes interconnected by bi-directional links, wherein each said node is provided with means for dynamically setting and storing within the node a full topology database including full parent-node-relationship references. The system is is capable of fast path determination and fast spanning tree recovery based on the topology database contents.