Method and apparatus for routing and forwarding between virtual routers within a single network element

A single network element comprising:

• a control card, coupled to a plurality of line cards, having a set of instructions to cause the
• control card to,
• instantiate a first virtual router and a second virtual router in the single network element, wherein:
• the first virtual router includes a first routing table to be stored on the control card and a first routing protocol process, the first routing protocol process is to insert into the first routing table a plurality of routes, each route to indicate a destination and a next hop wherein at least one route's next hop is an inter-virtual router interface coupled to the second virtual router and at least one route's next hop is one of a set of one or more egress ports that each corresponds to an outgoing interface,
• the second virtual router includes a second routing table to be stored on the same control card as the first routing table and a second routing protocol process, the second routing protocol process is to insert into the second routing table a plurality of routes each route to indicate a destination and a next hop,
• the first virtual router and second virtual router are coupled within the single network element through the inter-virtual router interface, wherein traffic from the first virtual router destined for the second virtual router is configured to travel through the inter-virtual router interface and not travel through the set of one or more egress ports, and
• the first routing table is a separate routing table from the second routing table, and
• download one or more routes from the routing tables to different forwarding tables on different ones of the plurality of line cards;
• and
• the plurality of line cards configured to:
• store the forwarding tables, wherein each forwarding table corresponds to a different virtual router, and
• store different routes downloaded from the control card in the forwarding tables on the different line cards.