Patent ID: 7453811

Claim:
A method for handling Link State Packets (LSPs) sent between processing nodes within a computer network, the method comprising: at a first node, receiving a first LSP sent by a second node, wherein the LSP specifies connectivity information regarding the second node; determining whether the first received LSP is an updated LSP even when the first received LSP is considered older than another LSP previously sent by the second node to the first node; if it is determined that the first received LSP is an updated LSP, performing updating procedures on LSP information, that is maintained by the first node, based on the first received LSP, wherein the LSP information was obtained from one or more LSPs sent by the second node, and updating the first node's routing tables based on the LSP information maintained by the first node after the updating procedures on the LSP information are performed, wherein the determination of whether the received LSP is an updated LSP comprises determining that the received LSP is an updated LSP if (i) authentication succeeds for the received LSP, (ii) the LSP is considered older than another LSP previously stored for the second node, and (iii) the stored LSP fails authentication.