Patent ID: 7120118

Claim:
A machine-implemented method of managing communications, the method comprising: identifying a current path comprising current segments in a packet-switched network for traffic traveling from a source node to a destination node; identifying a detour path comprising a first path from the source node to a detour node and a second path from the detour node to the destination node; and converting the detour path into an alternate path comprising alternate segments for sending traffic from the source node to the destination node if the current path includes at least one current segment that will be different from the alternate segments; wherein converting the detour path into the alternate path comprises comparing the current segments with a list of detour segments for the detour path, determining whether the first path is a sub-path of the current path, and determining whether the current path is a sub-path of the first path; wherein the sub-path determining excludes end nodes and repeated intermediate nodes from consideration.