Patent ID: 7536100

Claim:
A communication system to transfer user communications for a user, the communication system comprising: an optical network configured to transfer first user communications over a first optical wavelength and over a second optical wavelength; a first Point-of-Presence (POP) configured to receive the first user communications from a first user system over the first optical wavelength, transfer the first user communications to the optical network over the first optical wavelength, and responsive to a problem detected by the user with the transfer of the first user communications over the first optical wavelength wherein the user transfers a first control instruction to the first POP, to receive the first control instruction and transfer the first user communications to the optical network over the second optical wavelength instead of the first optical wavelength responsive to the first control instruction; a second POP configured to receive the first user communications from the optical network over the first optical wavelength and transfer the first user communications to a second user system, and responsive to the problem detected by the user with the transfer of the first user communications over the first optical wavelength wherein the user transfers a second control instruction to the second POP, to receive the second control instruction and receive the first user communications from the optical network over the second optical wavelength instead of the first optical wavelength responsive to the second control instruction and transfer the first user communications to the second user system; the first POP and the second POP configured to coordinate with one another a timing of a switch-over from the first optical wavelength to the second optical wavelength in order to provide service continuity; and the optical network configured to transfer the first user communications over the first optical wavelength in a first physical path and transfer the first user communications over the second optical wavelength in a second physical path wherein the first physical path is geographically diverse from the second physical path.