Patent ID: 8189486

Claim:
A method comprising: monitoring traffic over a network link that provides one or more services to one or more customers; determining whether a failure mode of the network link has occurred by comparing the monitored traffic to predetermined bandwidth criteria; and selecting a corrective action to be taken in response to the failure mode, wherein the comparison of the monitored traffic to the predetermined bandwidth criteria is performed on a service-by-service basis, wherein the monitored traffic for each of the one or more services is compared to predetermined bandwidth criteria associated with the service, wherein types of the failure mode are determined based on a proportion of the one or more services with respect to which the monitored traffic fails to satisfy the associated predetermined bandwidth criteria, wherein the failure mode types comprise a one failure mode determined when at least one service and fewer than all services provided to at least one of the customers fail to satisfy associated service requirements, and another failure mode determined when all services provided to at least one of the customers fails to satisfy associated service requirements, wherein selection of the corrective action to be taken is determined based on the failure mode type, and wherein the selection of the corrective action to be taken is further determined based on a frequency of occurrence of the failure mode.