Patent ID: 7333438

Claim:
A method for use in a connection-oriented network comprising a plurality of nodes interconnected by a plurality of links for establishing connections within the network, the method enabling the recovery of connections in the network in the event of a failure therein, the method comprising: (a) assigning connection re-routing priority to the connections in the network based on configured polices in response to the failure; (b) creating release message bundles based on the assigned connection re-routing priority for use by the nodes in the network to recover connections which includes: (b1) creating a plurality of bundles of release messages of recovery requirements based on priority with reference to the re-routing in the network, the created bundles of release messages being in bundling order, the bundling ordered release messages being sent to nodes of the network; and (c) if step (b1) is performed in a node which is neither a call originated nor a call destined node, sending a prescribed bundle of release messages to the plurality of nodes in the network which includes: (c1) sending a first bundle of the bundling ordered release messages; and in a case of another bundle being required to be sent, sending another bundle of the bundles of release messages after a predetermined hold-off timer value, wherein an initial value of the predetermined hold-off timer is determined from: max{(t prop,i )+(t proc,i )+(t rout,i ) for all connections 1<i<N in a group, where (t prop,i ) represents propagation delay between a current node and a source node of a connection “i”, (t proc,i ) represents processing time of the release message at the source node of the connection “i”: (t rout,i ) represents re-routing time at the source node of connection “i”; and N is the number of connections, the current node being a node in the network detecting the failure and sending release messages to nodes of affected connections and the source node being an originating edge node of the connection.