Patent ID: 7483433

Claim:
In a router network, a reliable method of broadcasting dynamically changing routing tables incrementally from at least one source to multiple consumers in accordance with a protocol, comprising: maintaining a copy of the current contents of said routing tables on said at least one source, said routing tables defining a destination of data packets as it arrives, and centrally maintained on a master control processor (MCP) by a routing protocol application; communicating said dynamic changes in said routing tables from said at least one source to a single active distributor; buffering said dynamic changes at said distributor; and broadcasting said dynamic changes in messages from said distributor to said multiple consumers, such that said broadcast dynamic changes are received and applied consistently across said multiple consumers, the set of routes received from a given peer temporarily stored in memory so that the broadcast dynamic changes provide said copy of the current contents from the one source to each routing table, such that the routing tables contain at least one unique session identifier associated with each specific source dynamic routing protocol (DRP) application, and contain consistently identical dynamic changes, such that each routing table contains the same external routing data and said messages from said distributor to said multiple consumers are paced at said distributor, while avoiding message congestion and message storms, wherein timers in said distributor minimize bandwidth saturation of said consumers, and wherein said distributor uses a collection of timer intervals, in broadcasting of said dynamic changes in messages, that are not integral multiples of one another, thereby assisting message load balancing by avoiding cyclical patterns.