US Patent 9225628 Topology-based consolidation of link state information

A method in a network element that forwards packets to destination nodes includes identifying groups of the destination nodes. Respective performance metrics of multiple different candidate network paths, over which the destination nodes in a given group are reachable from the network element, are estimated jointly for all the destination nodes in the given group. A network path is selected from among the candidate network paths based on the estimated performance metrics. The packets addressed to the destination nodes in the given group are forwarded over the selected network path.