Embodiments are provided for providing optimal route reflector (ORR) root address assignment to route reflector clients and fast failover capabilities in an autonomous system, including identifying a first node in an autonomous system as a candidate root node of a first routing group, identifying a client node based on a neighbor address used in a first routing protocol, mapping the neighbor address to routing information received from the client node via a second routing protocol, and associating the neighbor address with the first routing group if the routing information includes an identifier of the first routing group. In more specific embodiments, identifying the first node as a candidate root node includes determining the first node and the first routing group are advertised in a first protocol packet, and determining the first node and the second routing group are advertised in a second protocol packet.