Patent ID: 7058845

Claim:
A communication connection bypass method for a connection-oriented network comprising a plurality of nodes that include an ingress node and an egress node, and a plurality of links that interconnect the plurality of nodes, a main communication connection being established in the connection-oriented network to connect the ingress node and the egress node, the main communication connection serving as a communication connection for transmitting data, wherein said method comprises the step of establishing at least one backup communication connection with at least one node excluding the egress node and functioning as a starting node when a failure occurs at one of the nodes or links on the main communication connection, such that a data transfer route is switched from the main communication connection to said at least one backup communication connection, wherein the route between the node functioning as the starting node for said at least one backup communication connection and the egress node is established such that the route does not include any of the links and nodes on the main communication connection. wherein a plurality of the backup communication connections are established, and one of the backup communication connections merges into another one of the backup communication connections at a node en route.