Patent ID: 8817601

Claim:
A method in a first hub network element to recover from a failure of hub connectivity, the method comprising the steps of: detecting the failure of hub connectivity of the first hub network element including a failure of a hub connection between the first hub network element and a second hub network element; responsive to the step of detecting the failure of hub connectivity, the first hub network element fabricating a failure of a first spoke connection to cause a spoke recovery mechanism in a spoke network element coupled with the first hub network element over the first spoke connection to transition from the first spoke connection to a second spoke connection that couples the spoke network element with the second hub network element; and during the failure of the hub connection between the first hub network element and the second hub network element, establishing a third spoke connection between the first hub network element and the spoke network element to restore hub connectivity for the first hub network element such that traffic travels from the first hub network element to the spoke network element over the third spoke connection and then travels from the spoke network element to the second hub network element over the second spoke connection.