US Patent 7969898 Technique for breaking loops in a communications network

A technique for breaking a loop caused by looping alternate paths associated with a prefix in a communications network. One or more non-looping alternate paths associated with the prefix that exclude a first node in the communications network are identified. One or more alternate paths from nodes in the loop that are associated with the prefix are identified. An identified path that intersects with an identified non-looping path is established as an alternate path associated with the prefix at a node in the loop.