Patent ID: 7684314

Claim:
A communication node comprising: a neighbor management module configured to manage a plurality of neighbor routes to another communication node that can be reached by a specific number of hops equal to one or greater; a routing table management module configured to store a routing table for performing routing within a network; and a multi-path establishment module configured to establish spare routes by, when the number of hops from a destination node or a source node of data to the communication node is a multiple of the specific number of hops on a standard route, identifying neighbor routes to a specific node that can be reached by the specific number of hops from the communication node on the standard route from among the plurality of neighbor routes managed by the neighbor management module and by adding the identified neighbor routes to the routing table; a reception module configured to receive a multi-path message to the effect that a multi-path is established, transmitted from one neighboring node on the standard route, including IDs for identifying communication nodes existing on the standard route; and a processing module configured to determine whether or not the number of hops from the destination node or source node of the data to the communication node is a multiple of the specific number of hops on the standard route based on the plurality of IDs added to the multi-path message, wherein the multi-path establishment module establishes the spare routes when the processing module determines that the number of hops is a multiple of the specific number of hops.