Patent ID: 7751336

Claim:
A method for efficiently avoiding transient routing disturbances in one or more link state routing protocols with fragmented link state packets (LSPs) in a computer network, the method comprising: specifying, at a first link state router (LSR), which of two or more links are to be advertised in each of two or more corresponding LSP fragments; and advertising states of the specified links in the corresponding LSP fragments from the first LSR to one or more other LSRs, by adding a state of one of the specified links to a corresponding LSP fragment when the specified link is up, and removing a state of one of the specified links from a corresponding LSP fragment when the specified link is down, wherein the removing a state is performed by a technique selected from a group consisting of: replacing the state with a reserved space in the corresponding LSP fragment, replacing the state with a specified padding in the corresponding LSP fragment, changing the state to specifically indicate that the link is down, changing one or more metrics within the state to indicate that the link is not to be used, setting one or more flags to specifically indicate that the link is down, and setting the one or more flags to indicate that the link is not to be used, wherein states of other specified links remain in their corresponding LSP fragments regardless of the addition or removal of states of specified links.