Neighbor equivalence groups

A network device comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium have stored thereon program code that, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to:
• receiving, by a network device, an identical set of BGP path information from each of a plurality of equivalent Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) peers;
• determining, by the network device, that each of the plurality of equivalent BGP peers advertise identical BGP path information to the network device;
• group a first BGP peer of the network device and a second BGP peer of the network device into a neighbor equivalence group, the first and second BGP peers being configured to send identical BGP path update and withdrawal messages to the network device;
• create a single BGP path database associated with the neighbor equivalence group, the single path database storing the identical set of BGP path information;
• and
• upon receiving a BGP path update message from the first BGP peer for a path P, update an entry in the single path database corresponding to a key for path P, the updating being performed prior to receiving an identical BGP path update message from the second BGP peer for path P.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having embodied thereon a program, the program being executable by a processor in a network device to perform a method, the method comprising:

• receiving identical network control plane state from each of a plurality of equivalent peers;
• determining that each of the plurality of equivalent peers of the network device communicate identical network control plane state to the network device;
• establishing a neighbor equivalence group comprising the plurality of equivalent peers;
• and
• creating a single control plane state database associated with the neighbor equivalence group, the single control plane state database storing the identical network control plane state.