Patent ID: 7849127

Claim:
A method for a distributed control plane in a network element that includes a primary processing entity and one or more secondary processing entities, wherein the primary processing entity includes a plurality of control plane processes, comprising: determining to distribute a set of one or more of the plurality of control plane processes to the one or more secondary processing entities; for each control plane process to be distributed, performing the following: assigning a unique process instance identifier to each control plane process instance to be distributed, and assigning a unique resource identifier based on secondary processing entity identification and the unique process instance identifier; distributing those control plane process instances to the one or more secondary processing entities; receiving a first control plane process message, wherein the first control plane process message includes a control plane process message identifier; and upon determining that the first control plane process message is not associated with a specific control plane process instance, performing the following: selecting one of the control plane process instances, forwarding the first control plane process message to that control plane process instance, and processing the first control plane process message at that control plane process instance.