Accelerated MAC address resolution for IPv6 traffic with IS-IS Protocol

A router executing a process for improved Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS) protocol and Neighbor Discovery (ND) protocol execution to avoid dropped data traffic caused by Media Access Control (MAC) address resolution for next hops of routes determined by the IS-IS protocol, the router comprising:

• at least one line card including a forwarding information base (FIB), the at least one line card configured to communicate over a link with a neighbor router;
• and
• a network processor coupled to the at least one line card, the network processor configured to execute an IS-IS module and an ND module,
• the IS-IS module configured to provide an IS-IS process to establish an IS-IS adjacency between the router and the neighbor router over the link, where a MAC address for the neighbor router is received from the neighbor router, the IS-IS process to update a routing information base (RIB) for the router to include the neighbor router as a next hop for at least one destination address, the IS-IS process to provide the MAC address of the neighbor router to an ND process, and
• the ND module configured to provide the ND process to update the RIB, the FIB, or a L2 forwarding table of the at least one line card of the router to include the MAC address of the neighbor router in response to the providing of the MAC address to the ND process thereby obviating a need for the ND process to obtain the MAC address of the neighbor router in response to received data traffic at the router having a next hop to the neighbor router.