Patent ID: 9049148
Filing Date: 2015-06-02
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: installing, within a forwarding unit of a router, forwarding structures for forwarding packets in accordance with routing information for a set of routes through a network, wherein the forwarding structures comprise a plurality of forwarding next hops associated with the routes, and wherein the forwarding next hops are stored in a first representation within the forwarding unit; while forwarding the packets with the forwarding unit in accordance with the forwarding structures, installing, within the forwarding unit, one or more new forwarding next hops that are not associated with any routes by the forwarding structures and are stored within the forwarding unit in a second representation that is different from the first representation, the second representation comprising composite next hops; and after installing the new forwarding next hops within the forwarding unit, updating the forwarding structures to associate at least one of the routes of the set of routes to the new forwarding next hops; wherein the forwarding next hops and the new forwarding next hops specify operations to be performed on the packets by the forwarding unit, wherein, for the at least one of the routes, the forwarding next hops in the first representation and the new forwarding next hops in the second representation specify the same operations to be performed on the packets, and wherein, for at least one of the routes, the operations for the composite next hops are arranged in a memory of the forwarding unit as shared by multiple ones of the composite next hops such that some operations in the first representation are linked differently in the memory of the forwarding unit than the same operations in the second representation.