Patent ID: 7058016

Claim:
A method for performing route calculations in a link state routing protocol at a node within a computer network, the method comprising: receiving new route information at the node; evaluating existing routes of the node before recalculating and modifying routes to determine if said new route information improves at least one of the existing routes or at least one of the existing routes is made worse or lost; recalculating routes and modifying a routing table for the node only when said new route information improves at least one of the existing routes or at least one of the existing routes is made worse or lost, wherein recalculating routes comprises modifying information about links within the network without examining each of the nodes within the network; and upon losing one of the existing routes: initializing a best cost; finding a neighbor node's link information by traversing a link state packet; calculating a neighbor cost of reaching another node via the neighbor node; and setting the best cost to the neighbor cost if the neighbor cost is less than the best cost; wherein only a parent node sending the new route information is used in recalculating routes if the new route information improves existing routes.