Patent ID: 7599313

Claim:
A method of scaling hierarchical route reflectors (RRs) using automated Outbound Route Filtering (ORF) comprising: identifying, by a first RR, other RRs configured as RR clients within a route reflector hierarchy wherein identifying by the first RR, other RRs configured as RR clients within the route reflector hierarchy comprises: identifying, of a set of peer devices, a set of RR devices and a set of non-RR devices, and identifying, of the set of peer devices, a set of client devices and a set of non-client devices, identifying the RR clients as belonging to both the set of RR devices and the set of client devices; building, by said first RR, a common set of route target filters received from said client RRs wherein building, by said first RR, the common set of route target filters received from said client RRs comprises: receiving, from each RR client, a filter list that includes routing information for the RR client, generating an intersection of similar target entries from the filter lists received from each RR client, the intersection of similar target entries including target entries common to all of the filter lists from the RR clients, and using the intersection of similar target entries received from each RR client; and sending, by said first RR, the common set of route target filters to said Client RRs wherein sending, by said first RR, the common set of route target filters to said client RRs comprises storing, by the first RR, the common set of route target filters as routing information.