Patent ID: 8457141

Claim:
A telecommunications packet network comprising: first west and second west access equipment on one side of the network and first east and second east access equipment on another side of the network, a respective first transport communication link provided between the first west and the first east access equipment, and a respective second transport communication link provided between the second west and second east access equipment, a respective west restoration communication link provided between the first west and the second west access equipment, and a respective east restoration communication link is provided between the first east and the second east access equipment, each access equipment includes a router interface for connection to a respective router for communication with the network, a transport interface for connection to the respective transport communications link, and a restoration interface for connection to the respective restoration communication link, and each access equipment is configured to forward packets received from its router interface and its restoration interface only to its transport interface when its transport interface is enabled and to forward packets received from its router interface to its restoration interface when its transport interface is disabled.