Patent ID: 7746790

Claim:
A method comprising: storing indirect next hop data within a packet forwarding engine of a router, wherein the indirect next hop data associates protocol next hops with forwarding next hops, wherein the protocol next hops identify peer routers that disseminated routes to the router in accordance with a routing protocol, and wherein the forwarding next hops identify neighboring routers physically coupled to the router; maintaining a tree data structure external to the indirect next hop data, wherein the tree data structure includes route resolution nodes that resolve prefixes to entries within the indirect next hop data; traversing the route resolution nodes of the tree data structure in response to a network event to identify one or more affected protocol next hops; in response to a network event, modifying the indirect next hop data within the packet forwarding engine to associate the affected protocol next hops with a different forwarding next hop; and forwarding packets within a network using the modified indirect next hop data.