Patent ID: 6658481
Filing Date: 2003-12-02
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A method for routing packets in a network comprising one or more router devices, said method comprising the steps of:(a) determining a destination address for a packet to be forwarded; (b) performing a look-up in a single packet forwarding table in a router device to ascertain packet forwarding information associated with the destination address, said packet forwarding information including a layer three network protocol address of a router interface servicing said subnet address, and an associated flag indicating whether said interface is a BGP exit router interface that may or may not be directly attached to said routing device; (c) forwarding said packet to said indicated layer three protocol address when said flag value is not set and, if said flag value is set, the steps of: (d) utilizing said indicated exit next hop layer three network protocol address as an index into said forwarding table to perform a look-up in said single packet forwarding table to find a next hop router and associated flag value, and forwarding said packet to said indicated next hop when said flag value is not set, and otherwise repeating step (d) until said associated flag is not set, wherein at such time said packet is routed to said next hop router.