Consensus protocol for route announcements between autonomous systems

Abstract

Systems and methods are described to utilize a consensus protocol to determine adoption of network routes between autonomous systems (ASes). One or more routers can act as proposers to the groups, proposing a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) route. Remaining routers vote on whether to accept or reject the announcement. If a majority of the routers of the group accept the announcement, each router modifies its routing tables to reflect the new route. A token ledger is maintained at each router and updated based on the votes of each router—increasing tokens held by routers who propose accepted routes or vote with the consensus, and decreasing tokens held by routers who proposed declined routes or vote against the consensus. The number of tokens held by a router can indicate the operational correctness of the router in proposing or adopting good network routes.