Patent ID: 7487256

Claim:
A method for managing forwarding information in a router having a distributed architecture including a plurality of routing nodes, the method comprising the steps of: i) forming an aggregation tree corresponding to each routing node, the aggregation tree including actual nodes corresponding to forwarding information of each routing node and virtual nodes for aggregating forwarding information of each routing node; ii) varying the aggregation tree when forwarding information is added to each routing node; iii) checking a creation area of the forwarding information added to each routing node in step ii); iv) determining whether to advertise the forwarding information to other routing nodes by analyzing the aggregation tree and making a determination to advertise the forwarding information to the other routing nodes when the forwarding information was created in a local area of a predetermined routing node; v) advertising the forwarding information to the other routing nodes and storing the forwarding information in a local forwarding table of the predetermined routing node when the determination is made in step iv) to advertise the forwarding information to other routing nodes; vi) determining whether to store the forwarding information in the local forwarding table of the predetermined routing node by analyzing the aggregation tree and making a determination to store the forwarding information in the forwarding table of the predetermined routing node when the forwarding information was not created in a local area of the predetermined routing node; and vii) storing forwarding information in the local forwarding table of the predetermined routing node based on the determination in step vi).