Patent ID: 7899044

Claim:
A method of establishing bidirectional pseudo-wire connections between first and second switches in a packet switched network, the method comprising: sending, with a Provider Edge (PE) device, a label mapping message to the second switch requesting that a pseudo-wire connection be established in a direction from the second switch to the first switch; reserving resources for the pseudo-wire connection at the first switch in a direction from the first switch to the second switch; receiving a label withdraw message from the second switch when the second switch has insufficient resources for the pseudo-wire connection in the direction from the second switch to the first switch; in response to the label withdraw message, releasing the resources for the pseudo-wire connection at the first switch in the direction from the first switch to the second switch; and activating the pseudo-wire connection when the second switch has sufficient resources for the pseudo-wire connection, thereby optimizing resources for establishing pseudo-wire connections of each of the first and second switches.