Patent ID: 8521903

Claim:
A method of setting a bidirectional path between a first node device and a second node device in a network, comprising: establishing, by the first and second node devices, a first unidirectional path from the first node device to the second node device in the forward direction, by performing a first unidirectional path establishing procedure including transferring, from the first node device to the second node device, a first path message including a route record indicative of a transfer route through which the first path message is transferred from the first node device to the second node device, the route record storing a sequence of identifiers each identifying an intermediate node device and an output interface of the intermediate node device that have been used for transferring the first path message from the first node device to the second node device; and establishing, by the first and second node devices, a second unidirectional path from the second node device to the first node device along the route of the first unidirectional path in the backward direction, by performing a second unidirectional path establishing procedure including transferring from the second node device to the first node device, a second path message including the sequence of identifiers that have been stored in the route record included in the first path message received by the second node device, wherein each of the intermediate node devices positioned along the transfer route of the first unidirectional path, sets the second unidirectional path using the sequence of identifiers included in the second path message so that a pair of the first and second unidirectional paths that are established along the same route and have opposite directions with respect to each other, is set as a bidirectional path between the first and second node devices.