System and method for adding routing paths in a network

A telecommunications network device comprising:

• a network communication port for communicating with devices of a telecommunications network;
• a processing device;
• and
• a computer-readable medium with one or more executable instructions stored thereon, wherein the processing device executes the one or more instructions to perform the operations of:
• receiving a border gateway protocol (BGP) route for a customer network connected to the telecommunications network comprising an identifier of the customer network and a customer-specific next-hop value;
• receiving a plurality of interior gateway protocol (IGP) routes, each of the plurality of IGP routes comprising a route through the telecommunications network to a network device and the customer-specific next-hop value;
• selecting a route from the plurality of IGP routes based on the received BGP route;
• and
• transmitting a received communication along the selected route to the customer network.

A telecommunications network comprising:

• a plurality of edge devices each receiving border gateway protocol (BGP) information from a customer network in communication with a telecommunications network and announcing BGP route information comprising an indication of the customer network and a customer-specific next-hop value;
• a route reflector device receiving the BGP route information comprising the indication of the customer network and the customer-specific next-hop value from each of the plurality of edge devices, the route reflector announcing one instance of the BGP route information comprising the indication of the customer network and the customer-specific next-hop value;
• and
• a routing device receiving the announced BGP route information comprising the indication of the customer network and the customer-specific next-hop value from the route reflector and a plurality of interior gateway protocol (IGP) routes, each of the plurality of IGP routes comprising a route through the telecommunications network to a network device and the customer-specific next-hop value.