Patent ID: 8259564

Claim:
A method comprising: outputting one or more label advertisements in accordance with a label distribution protocol to establish a label switched path (LSP) through a network from an ingress router to an egress router; configuring a backup router within the network to maintain a backup forwarding context, in addition to a native forwarding context, that stores one or more labels advertised by the egress router as if the labels were advertised by the backup router, wherein the backup forwarding context maps the labels advertised by the egress router to forwarding next hops of the backup router, wherein the backup router stores the forwarding next hops of the backup router in the native forwarding context; switching to the backup forwarding context within the backup router upon receiving a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) packet intended for the egress router of the LSP and including at least one of the labels advertised by the egress router; and using the backup forwarding context, modifying a label stack of the MPLS packet with one of the labels of the backup forwarding context and forwarding the MPLS packet with the backup router to a destination as if the backup router were the egress of the LSP.