Patent ID: 8098576

Claim:
A method for protecting multicast service comprising: splitting a multicast service into a plurality of unidirectional point-to-point services from a source node to a sink node, wherein a signaling message of each unidirectional point-to-point service is independent of one another; establishing, at the source node, which publishes the multicast service, one or more label switch paths for each of the plurality of unidirectional point-to-point services via each of the signaling messages, wherein each unidirectional point-to-point service corresponds to a primary label switch path and a backup label switch path, wherein the backup label switch path of a first unidirectional point-to-point service shares a same first link with the primary label switch path of a second unidirectional point-to-point service, and the primary label switch path of the first unidirectional point-to-point service shares a same second link with the backup label switch path of the second unidirectional point-to-point service; sending, by a failure detection node, a notification message when a failure occurs on the primary label switch path or on the backup label switch path, the notification message carrying at least one ID of one or more label switch paths that are affected by the failure; and establishing, by the source node, one of a recovered label switch path and a new backup label switch path in response to the notification message.