Patent ID: 7620056

Claim:
A network system for providing a network service, comprising: a standby group of ATM network devices within an ATM network, each ATM network device within the standby group having its own ATM address and sharing a non-ATM network address with other members of the standby group; and a server which is configured to determine that a first member of the standby group of network devices is not available to provide the network service; identify a second member of the standby group of network devices to provide the network service; and promote the second member of the standby group of network devices to active status from standby status such that the second member provides the network service by handling packets destined for the shared non-ATM network address, wherein the determination by the server is performed based on at least one of (i) detecting that the first member has not opened a virtual circuit within a predetermined period, or (ii) detecting that the first member has not sent a KEEP ALIVE message within a predetermined period, and wherein the server is an ATM server in the ATM network, and wherein the server is not one of the ATM network devices in the standby group of ATM network devices.