| CPC H04L 45/306 (2013.01) [H04L 45/122 (2013.01); H04L 69/329 (2013.01)] | 20 Claims | 

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               1. A computer-implemented method of increasing routing efficiency between one or more given autonomous systems (ASes) and one or more target ASes in a border gateway protocol (BGP) session, the method comprising: 
            receiving, at a processor, one or more routing attributes included in one or more Routing Information Bases (RIBs); and 
                configuring the processor to: 
              identify one or more intermediate ASes from within the one or more routing attributes; 
                  calculate distances between each of the one or more intermediate ASes; 
                  generate an M×M matrix of the calculated distances, M being a number of ASes found in at least one of the one or more RIBs; 
                  infer one or more candidate ASes from the one or more intermediate ASes using the matrix of the calculated distances; 
                  for each respective AS described in the matrix of the calculated distances, compute a list of potential saved hops to reach each of the one or more target ASes if the respective AS were connected along one or more paths defined between the one or more given ASes and the one or more target ASes; and 
                  identify at least one of the one or more candidate ASes having higher values of impact to connect along the one or more paths to reduce an average number of hops along the one or more paths, thereby increasing routing efficiency between the one or more given ASes and the one or more target ASes. 
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