Based on overload and failure experience with link-state protocols, this draft identifies means to enable link-state protocols to: o avoid getting into congestion states wherever possible o respond gracefully to network overloads and failures o gracefully recover from massive loss of topology database information The proposed mechanisms include the following: o throttle setups of link adjacencies o reduce the rate of flooding of link-state-advertisements(LSAs) o prioritized treatment of Hello & LSA ack packets o database backup & resynchronization for graceful recovery from loss of topology database information.