Patent ID: 7599286
Filing Date: 2009-10-06
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A system for improving network performance when communicating between a first site network and a second site network via an Internet Protocol (IP) based transport network, wherein the first and second site networks include a local area network (LAN) and a plurality of host/media gateways (MGWs) connected to the LAN, said system comprising: first and second Site Edge Routers (SERs) in each site network that handle traffic from different host/MGWs, said SERs being connected to the LAN, and wherein each SER carries a first portion of the traffic from the SER's site network with a first preference, and a second portion of the traffic from the SER's site network with a second, lower preference; first and second Provider Edge (PE) routers in the transport network, wherein the first SER connects to the first PE router via a first SER-PE link, and the second SER connects to the second PE router via a second SER-PE link, each of said SER-PE links carrying bidirectional traffic for both the first and second SERs, and each of said SER-PE links having enough spare capacity to carry all of the traffic coming from both the first and second SERs in case the first or second SER fails; and means within the first and second SERs for guaranteeing symmetric paths for bidirectional traffic on each SER-PE link by providing preferred routing information to the first and second PE routers.