Abstract: The present application refers to a method and a system for reliably forwarding data packets in a source-selected path routing network including a plurality of autonomous systems. For this purpose, a data plane of each of the plurality of autonomous systems that comprises one or more border routers and a control plane of each of the plurality of autonomous systems that comprises a control service are split into two or more shards. Each of said shards contains exactly one control service and at least one border router and is responsible for processing, storing and propagating path information only for a subset of existing links between an autonomous system and a neighboring autonomous system within the source-selected path routing network. Hence, in the source-selected path routing network, each individual shard is not critical and thus can fail without compromising the availability of the entire system.

Abstract: The present application generally relates to a system and method for interfacing a source-selected path routing network with existing legacy IP networks. This interfacing may be achieved by installing specific router devices at the borders of the source-selected path routing network. Said router devices are able to exchange routing information in the form of IP prefix announcements and withdrawals between legacy IP networks and the source-selected path routing network according to an appropriate exterior gateway protocol. Hereby, the source-selected path routing network that in reality comprises a plurality of autonomous systems is conceptually regarded as a single autonomous system. Hence, a legacy IP network that is a direct neighbor of a source-selected path routing network may ensure that traffic destined to it traverses the source-selected path routing network by announcing its routing information only to the source-selected path routing network via an appropriate exterior gateway protocol.

Abstract: The invention is directed to a computer-implemented system and method for transmitting data from a first node to a second node of a source-selected path routing network. In said system and method according to the present invention, a first data packet is received at the first node, wherein said data packet was sent from a source node according to next-hop routing. Subsequently, at least part of the data contained in the data packet is transmitted from the first node to the second node according to source-selected path routing. Finally, the data received at the second node is transmitted to a destination node according to next-hop routing.