Patent ID: 7551551

Claim:
A method for performing reroute operations at the edge of a network, the network having first and second edge devices coupled to a neighboring routing domain, the method comprising: automatically detecting, by the first edge device, that the second edge device is coupled neighboring routing domain by, receiving a first destination address prefix in a first message advertised from an edge device in the neighboring routing domain, receiving a second destination address prefix in a second message advertised from the second edge device, determining whether the first and second destination address prefixes are equal, detecting, in response to determining that the first and second destination address prefixes are equal, that the second edge device is coupled to the neighboring routing domain; detecting a loss of communication between the first edge device and the neighboring routing domain; receiving a data packet at the first edge device, the received data packet containing a destination address that is reachable via the neighboring routing domain; determining whether the received data packet was previously rerouted from another other edge device coupled to the neighboring routing domain; and rerouting, in response to determining that the received data packet was not previous rerouted, the received data packet to the second edge device for forwarding to the neighboring routing domain.