Method for recovery of a controlled failover of a border gateway protocol speaker

A machine-readable storage device storing one or more sequences of instructions, wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors causes:

• receiving, at a network element, a request to switch a designation of an active Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) speaker of the network element from a first BGP speaker of the network element to a second BGP speaker of the network element, wherein the active BGP speaker processes all BGP messages received at the network element;
• in response to receiving the request, the active BGP speaker pausing operation of a transport-layer protocol for BGP to the network element without terminating an associated transport-layer protocol connection;
• synchronizing a second routing information base (RIB), maintained by the second BGP speaker to a first RIB by transferring routing data, which describes a state of the first RIB, from the first BGP speaker to the second BGP speaker;
• instructing the second BGP speaker to become the active BGP speaker;
• after the second BGP speaker becomes the active BGP speaker, resuming operation of the transport-layer protocol to the network element.