The invention relates to a method for routing packets. The method includes receiving a first packet to route, obtaining a first route entry using a first IP address associated with the first packet, where the first route entry includes a first prefix, a first route nexthop generation (RNG) and a first route nexthop pointer (RNP) to a second route entry. The method further includes comparing a route generation (RG) for the second route entry with the first RNG where the RG for the second route entry and the first RNG are equal, obtaining a first neighbor cache entry (NCE) from a first NCE pointer (NP) stored in the first route entry, and routing the first packet using the ARP information in the first NCE, where a route dependency list pointer (RDLP) in the second route entry points to the first route entry.