Pluris, Inc.

Vivek Menezes

Erol Basturk

Puneet Agarwal

An inter-network method for distributing a path-vector routing protocol within a multi-processor router has steps of running an instance of a router-distributed Border Gateway Protocol (rdBGP) on each of a plurality of processors of the multi-processor router, establishing routing sessions between individual instances of rdBGP running on separate processors of the multi-processor router, and between individual ones of the instances of rdBGP and external protocol peers, exchanging routing information between instances of rdBGP and the external protocol peers, wherein the instances of rdBGP learn, from the external protocol peers, routes for a plurality of destinations, calculating independently, by each instance of rdBGP, a set of routes, including a best route, from each of the plurality of destinations learned from the external protocol peers, and sharing route information determined with the other instances of rdBGP running on separate processors in the multi-processor router, and updating route information according to information received from the other instances of rdBGP. Routing information is further shared with the external protocol peers, and fault tolerance is provided in some embodiments by establishing redundant communication sessions with external protocol peers.

Software apparatus for distributing and providing fault-tolerance to path-vector routing protocols

A data structure has a list of event objects, one or more producers creating the event objects for the list, and a finite set of consumers accessing the object list. The structure is characterized in that the event objects are each associated with a first reference number indicating the number of consumers currently accessing the event object, and in that, as each consumer completes access the reference number is decremented, and when the reference number for an event object is zero, and the event object is at the head of the list, indicating that all consumers have accessed the object, that event object is removed from the list. A use of the structure for propagating route changes to nodes in a multiple-processor router, and to peer routers in a network is also taught.

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Burlingame, CA, United States of America

Vivek Menezes