Mechanism for Co-Ordinated Authentication Key Transition for IS-IS Protocol

A node configured to execute an automated key transition method for a network the network including a set of nodes that are interconnected and utilizing a current key identifier provided by a up key management server or provisioned manually, a key identifier specifies an authentication protocol and an authentication key for use in the authentication of intermediate-system to intermediate-system (IS-IS) protocol data units within an IS-IS network, area, or domain the node comprising:

• a network interface for sending and receiving IS-IS messages to adjacent nodes in the network:
• and
• a network processor coupled to the network interface, the network processor configured to execute a local key database manager and an IS-IS module,
• the local key database manager configured to receive a message from the group key management server having a most recent key field to hold a most recent key identifier to replace the current key identifier and to notify the IS-IS module of a change to the most recent key identifier,
• the IS-IS module including an IS-IS key manager that is configured to advertise the most recent key identifier to all reachable nodes, to continue authentication using the current key identifier until all reachable nodes have been verified to advertise the most recent key identifier, to verify whether all reachable nodes have advertised the most recent key identifier, and to switch authentication to use the most recent key identifier upon verification that all reachable nodes have advertised the most recent key identifier.