Patent ID: 8630162
Filing Date: 2014-01-14
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method in a router for initiating fast flooding based fast convergence to recover from a network failure, the method comprising the steps of: detecting a network failure; responsive to the detected network failure, transmitting a fast failure notification message to a set of one or more routers before or concurrently of convergence of the router; performing the convergence of the router, wherein the fast failure notification message includes information that identifies the network failure and also indicates that the set of one or more routers floods the fast failure notification message before or concurrently of convergence of the set of one or more routers, wherein each of the set of one or more routers has registered to receive the fast failure notification message, wherein the convergence comprises updating a routing table to reflect the network failure and rerouting data packets using the updated routing table, and wherein the fast failure notification message has a common message format different from Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) Protocol Data Unit (PDU) message format used for a normal IGP flooding protocol.