Patent ID: 8036126

Claim:
A networking device operably couplable to a first router and an autonomous system, the networking, device comprising: a gateway operable to: receive a first routing table from the first router; exchange routing information with the autonomous system; and send a first compressed routing table to the first router; and a memory management system comprising a processor operable to: in response to exchanging routing information, update the first routing table to create a first updated routing table; and incrementally coalesce the first updated routing table into the first compressed routing table, wherein, in incrementally coalescing the first updated routing table, the memory management system is further operable to: create an update node associated with a prefix received from the updated routing table; normalize a child node associated with the update node; determine a set of prevalent next-hops for the child node; normalize an ancestor node associated with the update node; and select a particular next-hop from the set of prevalent next-hops for the ancestor node, the update node, and the child node.