Patent ID: 6898187

Claim:
A method by which a router ensures the uniqueness of an identifier used to identify the router in routing protocol messages (RPMs) originated by the router in a network, comprising: for each of a plurality of routing protocol messages (RPMs) received by the router, determining whether an identifier ID R in the received RPM is the same as an identifier IDs currently used by the router to identify itself in RPMs originated by the router; comparing sequence information in an RPM most recently originated by the router with sequence information in each of a plurality of the received RPMs for which the identifier ID R is determined to be the same as the identifier ID S , the result of each comparison indicating whether the received RPM appears to have been originated more recently than the RPM most recently originated by the router; determining whether those RPMs having an identifier ID R that is the same as the identifier ID S and appearing to have been originated more recently than the RPM most recently originated by the router are being received at a rate above a predetermined threshold rate; and upon determining that such RPMs are being received at a rate above the predetermined threshold rate, selecting an identifier different from the identifier ID S for subsequent use in identifying the router in routing protocol messages originated by the router.