A method and apparatus for routing data in a network is disclosed. A spoke router signals its intention to act as spoke in a new bit in Hello and database descriptor packets. A router acting as hub acknowledges the spoke request. Once the spoke router receives the hub's acknowledgement, it installs a default route to the hub router. Flooding is suppressed from hub to spoke. Instead of flooding, the hub router sends empty database descriptor packets so that no request is sent from spoke routers and any further change in the topology is not sent to spoke routers. This minimizes the flooding in this environment.