Patent ID: 7787360

Claim:
A system configured to preserve multicast data forwarding during non-stop forwarding (NSF) recovery from a failure in a control plane of a multicast router within in a computer network, the system comprising: a first multicast component configured to checkpoint selective multicast state information from the control plane during proper operation of the router for subsequent retrieval and use when rebuilding contents of a topology table of the control plane during NSF recovery; and one or more second multicast components configured to cooperate with the first multicast component to replay the checkpointed selective multicast state information back to the control plane as part of a NSF recovery technique that enables efficient restart and recovery of the control plane failure without loss of data connectivity by the router in the network, wherein the checkpointed selective multicast state information comprises data driven event information that cause changes in state and control messages exchanged between the router and its neighbors in the network.