METHOD AND APPARATUS PROVIDING FOR AN IMPROVED VIRTUAL ROUTING REDUNDANCY PROTOCOL

A router attached to a network is a member of a virtual router for the network in accordance with VRRP. A port or interface on the router other than a port that attaches the router to the network is specified as critical. VRRP in not enabled for the critical port. (Alternatively, VRRP may be enabled for the critical port to provide routing redundancy for a different network and would not affect the virtual router associated with this network.) If the critical port on a master virtual router fails or is otherwise unable to forward packets, a state change is nevertheless triggered within the VRRP finite state machine that exists at the port on the master virtual router for which VRRP is enabled. The change in the VRRP finite state machine triggers the router to transition from the master virtual router to the new backup virtual router. The master virtual router can directly notify the backup virtual router to transition to master virtual router by transmitting a VRRP packet commanding the backup virtual router to become the master virtual router.