Patent ID: 7411900

Claim:
A method for restoration of virtually-concatenated data traffic in a network comprising at least first and second nodes, the method comprising the steps of: forming a virtually-concatenated group comprising: (i) a plurality of primary members each associated with a corresponding data stream, and (ii) at least one backup member; and responsive to a failure of a given one of the plurality of primary members, utilizing the backup member for restoring data traffic of the given member; wherein the failure is indicated by member status information sent by one of the nodes operating as a sink node to another of the nodes operating as a source node; wherein particular ones of the primary members for which member status information is carried in a given framing unit are identified by a member status indicator transmitted in that framing unit; wherein the member status indicator is one of a plurality of member status indicators that change from framing unit to framing unit in accordance with a normal cycle of such member status indicators; and wherein in conjunction with the failure, the normal cycle of member status indicators is broken in order to expedite the sending of member status information for the given primary member.