Abstract: A network device monitors the flooding of frames and obtains information to update a port's forwarding table to reduce unnecessary frame flooding. An unknown network address and a count are maintained at a first port, the unknown address being an address for which there is no information identifying another port to which unicast frames containing the address are to be forwarded, the count identifying the number of times frames containing the unknown address have been flooded from the first port to other ports. The count is incremented each time a unicast frame containing the unknown address is flooded from the first port to the other ports. When the count reaches a threshold, it is determined whether there is information at another port that identifies a specific port to which frames containing the unknown address are to be forwarded, and if so then the information is transferred to the first port, whereupon the unknown address becomes known at the first port.

Abstract: A network device monitors the flooding of frames and obtains information to update a port's forwarding table to reduce unnecessary frame flooding. An unknown network address and a count are maintained at a first port, the unknown address being an address for which there is no information identifying another port to which unicast frames containing the address are to be forwarded, the count identifying the number of times frames containing the unknown address have been flooded from the first port to other ports. The count is incremented each time a unicast frame containing the unknown address is flooded from the first port to the other ports. When the count reaches a threshold, it is determined whether there is information at another port that identifies a specific port to which frames containing the unknown address are to be forwarded, and if so then the information is transferred to the first port, whereupon the unknown address becomes known at the first port.