Patent ID: 7688714

Claim:
A network data packet routing apparatus, comprising one or more processors; one or more interfaces that are configured to couple to the processors and to one or more other devices in a packet-switched network; one or more non-transitory computer-readable media that are communicatively coupled to the one or more processors; one or more first sequences of instructions recorded on the computer-readable media which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to interact with the other devices according to Border Gateway Protocol (BGP); one or more second sequences of instructions recorded on the computer-readable media which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform: establishing a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) peering session between a first node and a second node in the packet-switched network; detecting a BGP condition requiring a reset of a particular BGP address family indicator (AFI) data structure of a plurality of AFI data structures and not requiring a reset of all of the AFI data structures of the plurality of AFI data structures, wherein the BGP condition does not affect states of routes in the particular AFI; soft resetting the particular AFI and not modifying route data for any other AFI data structure of the plurality of AFI data structures; after soft resetting the particular AFI data structure: preserving a BGP state and a forwarding state of the particular AFI; and forwarding data on routes represented in the particular AFI.