Patent ID: 7881188

Claim:
A method for implementing link redundancy in a media gateway, the method comprising: provisioning a media gateway link protection group to associate, with a common virtual local area network (VLAN), primary and secondary links respectively connected to ports of different line cards located in a media gateway; connecting the primary and secondary links using a cross-connection between ports of the line cards that are separate from the ports of the line cards to which the primary and secondary links are connected; and at run time, automatically bridging traffic using the common VLAN and the cross connection by forwarding, via the cross-connection, incoming traffic for the common VLAN received over the secondary link to the line card to which the primary link is connected and by forwarding, via the cross-connection, outgoing traffic for the common VLAN received at the line card to which the primary link is connected to the line card to which the secondary link is connected; and wherein each line card includes at least first and second ports that form a first protection group and third and fourth ports that form a second protection group, and wherein a card switchover occurs when links associated with both ports in a protection group fail at the same time.