As per patent office journal dated 10/09/2021, patent number 376579 has been granted to TELEFONAKTIEBOLAGET L M ERICSSON (PUBL) which is titled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LIMITING DISSEMINATION OF TOPOLOGY AND REACHABILITY INFORMATION IN AN OSPF AREA.
The primary independent claim of this patent states a method in a network element that acts as a hub in a hub and spoke topology to limit an amount of topology and reachability information that is advertised to a set of one or more remote network elements that act as one or more spokes in the hub and spoke topology in a same routing area, the method includes the steps of generation of a set of one or two link state advertisements (LSAs) to advertise over an interface that connects at least one of the set of one or more remote network elements to the network element, wherein the set of one or two LSAs includes information that describes only a connection to the set of one or more remote network elements and one or more aggregate routes for the same routing area, advertising, during a database exchange process with the one of the set of one or more remote network elements, only the set of one or two LSAs to the one of the set of one or more remote network elements. Further, a first LSA over the interface is received from the at least one of the set of one or more remote network elements and it is determined that the received first LSA includes information that describes, another connection to the set of one or more remote network elements from a different network element that acts as another hub in the hub and spoke topology, and another one or more aggregate routes. Lastly, the received first LSA in a first link state database (LSDB) is scoped to the set of one or more remote network elements is installed and the received first LSA from being installed in a second LSDB for the same routing area is further prevented.
During the patent prosecution, the patent examiner objected to this patent under section 3(k) of the Indian Patents Act. The patent applicant responded to this objection by stating that if the present invention provides a technical solution to a technical problem and has a technical effect then the same cannot be considered to fall under the category of algorithm or computer program per se. In light of such observation, the claimed invention is directed towards technical problem, which is regarded as the way to hub and spoke topologies, the remote sites or spokes get much more topology information then they need, this leads to flooding of topology and reachability information that further results in a significant amount of churn. This increases traffic on the network and activity in each router without improving the routing of data traffic. The solution to this problem is proposed by the present claimed invention as, method and apparatus for limiting the amount of topology and reachability information that is advertised in an OSPF area. Therefore, the claims of the present invention do not fall within the scope of Section 3(k) of the Act.
This patent falls under the category of Communication. Overall, this patent covers a network element that acts as a hub in a hub and spoke topology is configured to limit the amount of topology and reachability information that is advertised to a set of one or more remote network elements that act as one or more spokes in the hub and spoke topology in a same routing area. The network element generates a set of one or two link state advertisements (LSAs) to advertise over an interface that connects at least one of the set of remote network elements to the network element, wherein the set of LSAs includes information that describes a connection to the set of remote network elements and one or more aggregate routes.
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