Fast path forwarding of link state advertisements using a minimum spanning tree

Abstract

A link state advertisement protocol message received from an originating device over an inbound interface is forwarded by the fast path according to a minimum spanning tree. Specifically, a minimum spanning tree is established based upon the topology information obtained from the link state routing protocol. The minimum spanning tree identifies the outbound interfaces to which the link state advertisement protocol message is to be forwarded. The link state advertisement protocol message is forwarded be the fast path according to the minimum spanning tree, and more specifically the link state advertisement protocol message is forwarded by the fast path to all outbound interfaces identified by the minimum spanning tree other than the inbound interface. The link state advertisement protocol message continues to be processed and forwarded by the control plane as usual for robustness.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.