Patent ID: 7359404

Claim:
Apparatus comprising: a first network element for forwarding a set of packets associated with first configuration information along a path to a second network element; logic in the first network element for generating a first knowledge digest encoding the first configuration information into a fixed length bit array; logic in the second network element for generating a second knowledge digest encoding second configuration information into a fixed length bit array; logic in the second network element for comparing the first knowledge digest to the second knowledge digest, and for generating an indication if the comparison indicates that the first knowledge digest is not a subset of the second knowledge digest; wherein the first and second knowledge digests are bloom filters; and wherein the first and second network elements are Multi-Protocol Label Switched (MPLS) link state routers, and wherein the first configuration information is a first set of Forwarding Equivalence Classes (FECs), and wherein the second configuration information is a second set of FECs.