A method and system for detecting and correcting invalid network paths in a network having a plurality of routers and a set of global invariant rules imbedded in the network including querying a subset of a routing table data structure defining network paths wherein said subset includes a plurality of routing table entries and comparing a network routing table entry with an earlier network routing table entry for the same node. The method and system also includes detecting inconsistencies between the newer network routing table entry and the earlier network routing table entry, and invalidating the network entries of the older network routing table that are inconsistent with the newer entries. The method and system also includes reconstructing the routing structure by replacing the invalidated network routing table entries with new routing table entries that minimize violation of the invariant protocols.