Patent ID: 7710899

Claim:
A network router adapted to gracefully restart in a network, composed of a plurality of autonomous systems, comprising: a processor having a memory that includes route prefix information; a local store of non-volatile route prefix information placed in a non-volatile memory so as to survive failure of the memory that includes the route prefix information; and a restart process, for execution by the processor, that (1) after initiating a restart, retrieves the non-volatile route prefix information from the non-volatile memory, (2) transmits update messages to known peers to communicate best paths, (3) generates a best path computation from the non-volatile route prefix information, (4) prior to completion of processing of updates of network information from peers, transmits an end-of-Routing Information Base (RIB) marker to known peers, and (5) after transmitting the update messages and end-of-RIB marker, processes received updates of network information from peers.