Patent ID: 7590053

Claim:
A method for providing redundancy for communications through a communication network, comprising: establishing an Intermate Communication Channel (ICC) between a first source node and a second source node; establishing a primary Soft Permanent Virtual Circuit (SPVC) network connection through the first source node to one of a list of possible destination nodes; determining whether the second source node is to attempt establishment of an alternate network connection; when the second source node is to attempt establishment of the alternate network connection, establishing the alternate network connection through the second source node to one of the list of possible destination nodes; and using finite state machines (FSMs) residing on the first source node and the second source node to establish connections to at least one destination node, wherein each FSM operates in the following states: down, as an initial state and when a connection between the source node on which the FSM resides and the destination node is down, up, when a connection is established from the source node on which the FSM resides to the destination node, attempting, when the source node on which the FSM resides is attempting to make a connection, mate attempting, when a source node on which the FSM does not reside is attempting to make a connection, and mate up, when a connection is established through the source node on which the FSM does not reside.