Patent ID: 8572281

Claim:
A method for leaking routes among routers in a communication network, the method comprising: receiving routing information from one or more exporting routers, the received routing information including: one or more routes to be shared; and route importing criteria for each route, the route importing criteria including a policy received from at least one of the exporting routers that restricts specific requesting routers from receiving exported shared routes and permits specific requesting routers to receive the exported shared routes; storing the received routing information in a database accessible by more than one requesting router; receiving from one or more requesting routers a request for one or more shared routes; determining whether the request for the one or more shared routes matches the route importing criteria; providing, only upon receipt of the request, one or more shared routes to the one or more requesting routers that are not restricted from receiving exported shared routes according to the policy received from the at least one exporting router; and providing, only upon receipt of the request, the one or more shared routes to the one or more requesting routers that are permitted to receive the exported shared routes according to the policy received from the at least one exporting router.