Patent ID: 8804486

Claim:
A method of operating a base station system of a wireless communication network to transmit traffic over a packet backhaul network to a Mobile Switching Center (MSC), the method comprising: identifying a primary network address for a primary routing element that terminates a first virtual connection from the base station system at the MSC over the packet backhaul network; identifying a backup network address for a backup routing element that terminates a second virtual connection from the base station system at the MSC over the packet backhaul network; using heartbeat messages to monitor the availability of the primary routing element for handling traffic between the base station system and the MSC; transmitting outgoing traffic over the packet backhaul network to the primary routing element based on the primary network address responsive to the primary routing element being available; and transmitting outgoing traffic over the packet backhaul network to the backup routing element based on the backup network address responsive to the primary routing element being unavailable.