Patent ID: 7170865

Claim:
A communications system comprising a core network element 3G-General Packet Radio Service Support Node (3G-SGSN); at least one access network element Radio Network Controller (RNC); a transport network providing Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) permanent virtual channel (PVC) connections between the core network element 3G-SGSN and said at least one access network element RNC; two or more ATM interface units in the core network element 3G-SGSN; two or more active ATM PVC connections between each of said at least one access network element RNC and said core network element 3G-SGSN, different ATM PVC connections from any one of said at least one access network element being connected to different ones of said two or more ATM interface units, and an ATM traffic being spread over said different ATM PVC connections in order to improve tolerance of the communications system to failures in the ATM PVC connections or in the ATM interface units.