Patent ID: 8301804

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: one or more hub interfaces of a hub network element coupled to a plurality of access network elements of a ring network, the ring network comprising a pair of rings comprising a first ring traveling in a first direction and a second ring traveling in a second direction opposite the first direction, the hub network element managing communications to and from the ring network; and one or more processors coupled to the one or more hub interfaces of the hub network element, the one or more processors operable to perform the following for each access network element: facilitate establishing a pair of point-to-point logical connections to couple each access network element to a hub interface at a corresponding dedicated bandwidth, a first connection traveling along the first ring, a second connection traveling along the second ring; facilitate establishing a pair of tunnels on the pair of point-to-point connections, the pair of tunnels comprising a first tunnel and a second tunnel, the hub network element shaping traffic for the first and second tunnels; and utilize the tunnels to protect the ring network.