A system and method of inter-router communication is described. The system and method include a routing protocol communication, configured to be sent between a plurality of routers on a network, and having a data plane update packet sent with a route update packet. The data plane update packet includes routing attributes corresponding to information export protocol signatures. A signature recognition module may be located on at least one of the routers in the network, and can store and recognize data packet signature patterns located in at least a portion of a payload of the data plane update packet. A data plane filter module can also be located on at least one of the routers, and can handle data packets according to filtering rules for specific data packet signature patterns.