System and method for automatically segmenting and merging routing domains within networks

A method for automatically segmenting and merging routing domains within a network, in which the network includes one or more gateway devices and a plurality of nodes, the method comprising:

• providing a local routing table at each of said nodes and gateway devices;
• providing a gateway color attribute in each gateway device;
• setting the gateway color attribute in each gateway device to a value;
• each of said nodes selecting a gateway device as said node's primary gateway;
• and
• each of said nodes setting a node color attribute whose value is derived from the value of the gateway color attribute of said node's primary gateway.

A method for dynamically segmenting a network into multiple sub-networks or routing domains, in which the network includes one or more gateway devices and a plurality of nodes, the method comprising:

• providing a local routing table at each of said nodes and gateway devices;
• providing a gateway color attribute in each gateway device;
• setting the gateway color attribute in each gateway device to a value;
• each of said nodes selecting a gateway device as its primary gateway;
• each of said nodes setting a node color attribute whose value is equal to the value of the gateway color attribute of its primary gateway;
• each of said nodes obtaining routing information from other nodes and gateway devices in the vicinity and discarding routing information describing destination nodes whose node color attribute value is not equal to its own node color attribute value;
• and
• each of said gateway devices obtaining routing information from other nodes and gateway devices in the vicinity and discarding routing information describing destination nodes whose node color attribute value is not equal to its own gateway color attribute value.