System and method for implementing an IRC across multiple network devices
View Patent ↗A system includes a plurality of network devices and an external memory. Each network device includes an address table. The external memory includes a group of address tables corresponding to the address tables of the network devices. The system monitors the address table associated with each of the network devices, detects whether one of the address tables has been updated, and updates the corresponding address table in the external memory in response to detecting an update to one of the address tables.
1. A system comprising:
a plurality of network devices, each network device including an address table, at least one of the address tables in the plurality of network devices being different from another one of the address tables in the plurality of network devices, the plurality of network devices including multiport switches; and
a memory device configured to store a duplicate address table for each of the plurality of network devices.
2. The system of claim 1 further comprising:
a bus that interconnects each of the network devices with the memory device.
3. The system of claim 1 wherein each of the network devices is configured to:
update its address table, and
automatically update the corresponding duplicate address table in the memory device.
4. The system of claim 1 wherein each of the network devices is configured to:
monitor its address table,
determine whether the address table has been updated, and
automatically update the corresponding duplicate address table in the memory device when the address table has been updated.
5. The system of claim 1 wherein the address table includes an internal rules checker address table.
6. The system of claim 1 further comprising:
a host configured to update the address table of at least one of the plurality of network devices, and
wherein the at least one of the plurality of network devices updates, in response to the host updating the at least one address table, the corresponding duplicate table in the memory device.
7. The system of claim 6 further comprising:
a bus configured to interconnect the plurality of network devices, the memory device, and the host.
8. The system of claim 1 wherein each of the plurality of network devices is configured to:
detect an addition of a new entry in its address table, and
write the new entry to the corresponding duplicate address table of the memory device.
9. The system of claim 1 wherein each of the plurality of network devices is configured to:
detect a deletion of an entry in its address table, and
delete the entry from the corresponding duplicate address table of the memory device.
10. A system comprising:
a plurality of network devices, each network device including an address table;
a memory device configured to store a duplicate address table for each of the plurality of network devices; and
an internal rules checker configured to perform an address search using the duplicate address table from the memory device that corresponds to the address table of the respective network device.