TECHNIQUE FOR NOTIFYING EIGRP NEIGHBORS WHEN DESTROYING ADJACENCIES IN A COMPUTER NETWORK

摘要

A technique efficiently notifies EIGRP neighbors when destroying adjacencies in a computer network. A goodbye notification packet is provided that enable s an EIGRP router to inform one or more of its neighbors of its intention to destroy their existing adjacencies. The goodbye notification packet comprise s an EIGRP packet header with variable-length fields embodied as an appended goodbye attribute. The appended goodbye attribute is illustratively tagged according to a TLV encoding format that defines a new type (T) field called "a goodbye" having a predetermined type that distinguishes it from a convention al EIGRP Hello packet. A value (V) field of infor~mation conveyed within the goodbye attribute contains a list of neighbor (peer) identi~fiers (IDs). The peer IDs on this list instruct those neighbor routers to "go away" so that their adjacencies can be destroyed.