IDENTIFYING REVERSE PATH FORWARDING INFORMATION

Disclosed are, inter alia, methods, apparatus, data structures, computer-readable media, mechanisms, and means for maintaining and using a data structure identifying for multiple addresses the reverse path forwarding information for a common intermediate node. A data structure includes an address lookup data structure for identifying leaf nodes of multiple leaf nodes corresponding to matching addresses. Each of the multiple leaf nodes includes a reverse path forwarding indirection link to a corresponding sub-data structure indicating reverse path forwarding information. Each of a particular set of leaf nodes having a same intermediate reachability node in a network includes a particular indirection link to a same particular sub-data structure indicating reverse path forwarding information. The intermediate reachability node may or may not be a gateway node to a different intranet. The intermediate reachability node is typically a node in the network which traffic between a node and multiple other nodes must traverse