Patent ID: 7720010

Claim:
A method for providing a tree topology in an interior gateway protocol to reduce network traffic comprising: receiving a discovery message from each routing system connected to a first routing system wherein each discovery message includes tree topology level information; determining a parent routing system of said first routing system in said tree topology of said network from said tree topology level information in each said discovery message received from each said routing system; determining a depth in said tree topology of said network of said first routing system and said parent of said first routing system; in response to determining said depth, forming adjacencies with all routers at a same depth in said tree topology connected to said first routing system; generating a connection advertisement message that includes prefixes learned from one or more child routing systems of said first routing system in said tree topology; and transmitting said generated connection advertisement message from said first routing system to said parent routing system of said first routing system in the tree topology, while not sending the generated connection advertisement message to any of said one or more child routing systems of the first routing system in the tree topology.