Patent ID: 7406074

Claim:
A method for generating and transmitting messages in a communication network, comprising the steps of: (a) combining, at a first component of the communication network, a plurality of messages into a bundled message, wherein: the plurality of messages comprises one of (i) at least two connection requests, (ii) at least one connection request and at least one failure notification, and (iii) at least two failure notifications; when the bundled message comprises a plurality of connection requests, each of the connection requests corresponds to a request to configure a first switch node of the communication network for a different connection; and when the bundled message comprises a plurality of failure notifications, each of the failure notifications corresponds to failure of a different connection in the communication network; and (b) transmitting the bundled message to a second component of the communication network, wherein: the second component recovers the plurality of messages from the bundled message; when the bundled message comprises a plurality of connection requests, the second component implements the plurality of connection requests to configure the first switch node for a plurality of connections; when the bundled message comprises a plurality of failure notifications, the second component initiates restoration processing for a plurality of connections; and each of the first and second components is part of a switch node in the communication network.