Patent ID: 8498303

Claim:
A method of routing data in a network comprising: sending a first instruction from an intelligent route reflector device to a first anycast router associated with the network, wherein the first instruction signals the first anycast router to statically route outbound traffic to a first firewall farm having an anycast address, wherein the first firewall farm is associated with a firewall service; identifying prefixes of internet protocol addresses of customer endpoints that communicate with the network via the first anycast router; instructing a first firewall node router associated with the first firewall farm to send a first route advertisement to the network announcing that the first firewall node router is a first subsequent best hop for data that is bound for customer endpoints having an internet protocol address that includes the prefixes; detecting a change in a network condition of the network; and sending a second instruction from the intelligent route reflector device to the first anycast router after detecting the change, wherein the second instruction signals the first anycast router to route outbound traffic to a second firewall farm having the anycast address, wherein the second firewall farm is associated with the firewall service.