Patent ID: 8667174

Claim:
A method for retaining routes in a control plane learned by an inter-domain routing protocol in an event of a connectivity failure between a first router and a second router, the method comprising: classifying the first router as one of a route reflector and an originator; classifying the second router as one of a route reflector and an originator; determining that a connectivity failure has occurred between the first router and the second router; determining whether to propagate a withdrawal of learned routes in response to the connectivity failure, wherein the determining whether to propagate a withdrawal of learned routes comprises: abstaining from propagating the withdrawal of learned routes based on the first router being classified as a route reflector and the second router being classified as a route reflector; propagating the withdrawal of learned routes based on the first router being classified as an originator and the second router being classified as an originator; and propagating the withdrawal of learned routes based on the learned routes having a next hop attribute equal to the first router and whether the first router is still visible in an interior gateway protocol domain when the first router is classified as an originator and the second router is classified as a route reflector.