Patent ID: 7742431

Claim:
In a link state protocol that conventionally floods link state advertisements or link state packets (“LSA/LSPs”) to all of a plurality of nodes in a network, a method of selectively sending the LSA/LSP, comprising: prior to receiving interest information, collecting from a first node, storing in a storage unit and updating in the storage unit, expressed-interest data indicating in which type of two or more types of LSA/LSP interest information messages and from which routers the first node is interested in; receiving the interest information from a third node for the first node in the network; determining that a second node needs to send a LSA/LSP; and determining whether the first node is interested in the interest information by comparing the type of the interest information message in the interest information with the expressed-interest data that was received from the first node; generating the LSA/LSP comprising the interest information, and sending the LSA/LSP from the second node to the first node only if the first node expressed interest in receiving the interest information and in receiving the interest information from the third node; wherein the interest information is in any one of a router capabilities message type of the link state protocol, a router capabilities link state advertisement of the link state protocol, or a router capabilities link state packet of the link state protocol; wherein generating and sending the LSA/LSP comprises determining, based on the interest information, whether the first node has expressed an interest in a particular type of link state information carried in the LSA/LSP; wherein the particular type of link state information comprises a change in router capabilities for routers in a particular network tunnel; wherein the method is performed at the second node.