The tmnxPortEtherDampeningTable maintains the configuration of Exponential Port Dampening for Ethernet Ports. Exponential Port Dampening (EPD) is used to reduce the effect on a network topology of a situation where a port or link may exhibit flapping due to repetitive outage events. These events may fall outside of preset hold timers, which are based on system re-configurations or other rare occurrences. The port being enabled for a brief period creates churning in the network topology, then fails shortly thereafter. EPD provides a tool to alleviate such a situation by assigning penalties to consecutive port down events, and increases the hold-down period as the frequency of outages increases. If the port state continues to be unstable, the port is put into a suppressed state, and no longer reports events to upper layers.