Patent ID: 8264953

Claim:
A method for providing resilient packet communications in a network, comprising: instantiating a rapid channel failure detection algorithm, the rapid channel failure detection algorithm comprising a per-link failure detection in a link aggregation group, and the per-link failure detection using layer-1 of the network to detect a link failure in the link aggregation group; instantiating a physical layer link aggregation protocol associated with links of the network for packet communications; and combining the physical layer link aggregation protocol with the rapid channel failure detection algorithm, wherein: the combination is responsive to failures in one or more links in the network and provides for automatic redistribution of traffic among a reduced number of available links in order to render communications of packets through the network resilient to such failures, and the combination is further responsive to recovery of the failures in the one or more links and provides for automatic redistribution of traffic among an increased number of available links including one or more recovered links.