Patent ID: 7532631

Claim:
A method of managing routes in a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) host, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of: assigning a virtual link identifier to each link of a set of digital communication links established between the BGP host and one or more BGP peers; determining one or more routes that are reachable on a particular link of the set of digital communication links; creating and storing, in electronic digital memory, an association of the one or more routes with a BGP identifier of the BGP host and a particular virtual link identifier that is assigned to the particular link; advertising, in a first BGP message, the one or more routes to a particular BGP peer of the one or more BGP peers, wherein the first BGP message includes the BGP identifier and the particular virtual link identifier; and sending a second BGP message to the particular BGP peer, wherein the message indicates that the one or more routes are withdrawn and include the BGP identifier and the particular virtual link identifier.