Patent ID: 7403530

Claim:
A router supporting multiple routing protocols, said router comprising: a. an interface layer including a plurality of I/O controllers, each I/O controller implementing an I/O port; b. a switching layer in communication with said interface layer for selectively establishing signal pathways between said I/O ports; and c. a routing layer in communication with said interface layer, said routing layer including a plurality of routing protocol computing entities, each routing protocol computing entity being associated with a set of at least one routing protocol and including: i. a CPU; and ii. a data storage medium in communication with said CPU and storing program data for execution by said CPU to cause said routing protocol computing entity to effect management of one or more peering sessions with remote routing devices according to the at least one routing protocol in the set associated with said routing protocol computing entity, said management of one or more peering sessions comprising maintaining in said data storage medium information on a plurality of routes; wherein the set of at least one routing protocol associated with a first one of said routing protocol computing entities is different from the set of at least one routing protocol associated with a second one of said routing protocol computing entities; wherein the data storage medium of said first one of said routing protocol computing entities contains information on at least one route for which there is no information in the data storage medium of said second one of said routing protocol computing entities.