Patent ID: 8699329
Filing Date: 2014-04-15
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of determining forwarding information for use in forwarding packets at a forwarding node of a packet-forwarding network, each node of the network having a unique node identifier, the method comprising: determining, by the forwarding node, shortest paths between a first node and a second node of the network; determining, by the forwarding node while determining the shortest paths, when multiple paths have equal cost; and selecting, by the forwarding node, one of the equal-cost paths, the selected equal-cost path having the property that, if the node identifiers assigned to nodes in each equal-cost path are sorted according to a first ordering criterion and concatenated in that order to derive a path identifier for each equal-cost path, wherein the first ordering criterion is independent of an order in which nodes corresponding to the node identifiers appear in the path, and the resulting path identifiers are sorted according to a second ordering criterion to derive an ordered list of path identifiers, then the selected equal-cost path is at one extreme of the ordered list of path identifiers.