Patent ID: 7525921
Filing Date: 2009-04-28
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: storing, within a network router, routing information specifying a plurality of routes to network destinations within a network; storing, within the network router, forwarding information that maps the network destinations to next hops that represent neighboring devices within the network and to corresponding output interfaces of the network router for reaching the neighboring devices; configuring the output interfaces to include a discard interface; detecting, with the network router, a network attack; identifying a target of the network attack; updating the forwarding information of the network router in response to the network attack to direct packets associated with the network attack to the discard interface by setting the next hop associated with a route to the target in the forwarding information to a next hop associated with the discard interface; forwarding the packets associated with the network attack to the discard interface in response to the network attack; forwarding packets that are not associated with the network attack to the respective next hops according to the forwarding information through the corresponding output interfaces instead of the discard interface; and discarding the packets received by the discard interface.