Load sharing and shortest-path routing in transparently interconnected local area networks

A new transparent bridging scheme, called the source dependent spanning tree (SDS), is presented in which bridges observe broadcast packets from active hosts to create the shortest path trees for these hosts dynamically. Issues related to packet forwarding in the presence of multiple trees are identified and algorithms for addressing these issues are presented. Some important properties of SDS, such as correctness, are described, and it is compared with previously proposed schemes. Under standard traffic assumptions, it is shown that SDS can achieve load sharing and shortest-path routing without incurring excessive storage and communication overheads