Patent ID: 8064443

Claim:
A method comprising: storing, with a router of a network, information describing a plurality of routes, wherein each of the routes defines a sequence of hops through the network to a destination; storing, with the router, data defining rules by which the router determines a local preference value for at least one of the plurality of routes, wherein the local preference value is specified by a routing protocol implemented by the router as an integer value, wherein the router, in accordance with the routing protocol, utilizes the local preference value during route resolution to rank and select one or more of the routes, and wherein the rules redefine the local preference value from the integer value specified by the routing protocol to two or more bit fields, and wherein the rules associate each of the bit fields with a different route characteristic and define a mapping, for each of the different route characteristics, that associates a bit-field preference value with each possible state of the corresponding route characteristic; determining, with the router, a state for each of the different route characteristics defined by the mapping; determining an integer value for the local preference value by setting, with the router, each of the two or more bit fields of the local preference value with one of the bit field preference values associated with the determined states in the mapping; and associating, with the router, the at least one of the routes with the determined integer value of the local preference value.