Disclosed is a mechanism for implementing link state flooding reduction (LSFR) in an Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) network. The mechanism includes receiving data indicating connectivity of a plurality of nodes in the network. A flooding topology is built based on the connectivity. This includes selecting one of the nodes as a root node, and building a tree of links connecting the root node to the nodes in the network. The flooding topology is stored in a memory. The flooding topology may not be to the remaining nodes in the network. Link state messages may then be flooded over the flooding topology.