Patent ID: 8797913

Claim:
A method of reducing overhead in a network performed at a network node, the method comprising: receiving, at the node, a network update message; determining whether the network update message should be propagated to other nodes, comprising: determining whether the network update message indicates that a link is up or down; determining whether a relevant network path structure includes the link; if the link is up and the relevant network path structure includes the link, determining that the network update message should not be propagated to other nodes; and if the link is down and the relevant network path structure does not include the link, determining that the network update message should not be propagated to other nodes; if the network update message should be propagated to other nodes, forwarding the network update message to at least one other node; and if the network update message should not be propagated to other nodes, refraining from forwarding the network update message to any other node.