Patent ID: 7242671

Claim:
A method of disseminating information in a communication network including a plurality of nodes, the method comprising the steps of: (a) receiving, in a node, a packet including link-state advertisements (LSAs) from the communication network, at least one LSA including a flooding status field; (b) determining, in the node, a type of LSA received based on the flooding status field; and (c) re-flooding the packet, from the node, onto the communication network, based on the type of LSA determined in step (b); wherein the node includes a re-flood timer, and step (c) includes waiting a first interval of time for the re-flood timer to expire, and re-flooding the packet, from the node, onto the communication network after waiting the first interval of time for the re-flood timer to expire; and step (a) includes receiving a sub-field in the flooding status field indicating an urgency level for the at least one LSA, and step (c) includes setting, by the node, the re-flood timer to expire after a second interval of time based on the indicated urgency level, and waiting, by the node, for the re-flood timer to expire after the second interval of time, and then re-flooding the packet from the node onto the communication network, the second interval of time being different from the first interval of time.