Patent ID: 7363387

Claim:
An apparatus for reducing information propagating in a network environment, comprising: a first network element operable to glean routing information being communicated by a second network element, the routing information being stored such that the routing information may be accessed, wherein the first and second network elements may cooperate in an adjacency protocol that allows for a data exchange between the first and second network elements, and wherein the second network element does not communicate the routing information gleaned by the first network element during the data exchange associated with the adjacency protocol, whereby the first network element, when receiving link state advertisements from non-adjacent network elements, stores the link state advertisements, and whereby when the first network element detects a new neighbor and starts a database descriptors (DBD) exchange process, the first network element will not include the link state database advertisements in the DBD exchange process, the first network element comparing one or more DBD entries from the neighbor against its normal and temporary link state databases to determine which link state advertisements it needs to request.