Patent ID: 6751190
Filing Date: 2004-06-15
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A method for repairing a failure in a communications link between a first node and a second node in a tunnel, wherein the tunnel has been established for transferring data between tunnel endpoints through a plurality of nodes by assigning a first label for transferring data on a first communications link between the first node and the second node and assigning a second label for transferring data on a second communications link between the second node and a third node comprising the steps of:storing the first and second labels in the first node prior to any communications link failure, the first label assigned to an Internet Protocol address for the second node in the tunnel and the second label assigned to another Internet Protocol address for the third node in the tunnel, data being transferred between nodes in the tunnel using the assigned labels; in the first node, upon detecting a failure in the communications link between the first node and the second node in the tunnel, determining, which downstream node in the tunnel is assigned to the second label from the labels stored in the first node; and redirecting data transfer for the tunnel around the failed communications link from the first node through a bypass node to the third node using the second label stored in the first node.