Patent ID: 7869350

Claim:
A method of determining a repair strategy for a data communication network of nodes and links comprising the steps of: at an originator node: in response to detecting a failure in communicating with a destination node, implementing a link repair strategy by computing a first repair path around an adjacent link connected to the destination node; creating timer period for testing the first repair path; sending a first probe packet along the first repair path to the destination node, the first probe packet having the originator node as a source and the destination node as a destination; monitoring for a second probe packet having the destination node as a destination, sent by the destination node in response to receiving the first probe packet from the originator node; and in response to receiving the second probe packet, from the destination node during the timer period, forwarding data traffic to the destination node via the first repair path; in response to not receiving the second probe packet from the destination node during the timer period, computing a second repair path around the adjacent link to the destination node; wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.