Patent ID: 8711676

Claim:
A method of finding a local repair path for a connection, the connection traversing a connection path comprising a plurality of nodes, the method comprising: determining a first path based upon the connection path, the first path originating at a first node in the connection path and terminating at a second node in the connection path, wherein the second node is downstream from the first node in the connection path, and wherein the first path does not include the next-hop link of the first node in the connection path; determining a second path based upon the connection path, the second path originating at the first node in the connection path and terminating at a third node in the connection path, wherein the third node is downstream from the first node in the connection path, and wherein the second path does not include the next-hop link of the first node in the connection path; determining a first number of nodes equal to the number of nodes that are both in the first path and downstream from the second node in the connection path; determining a second number of nodes equal to the number of nodes that are both in the second path and downstream from the third node in the connection path; and selecting one of the first path or the second path for signaling a local repair connection based upon the first number of nodes and the second number of nodes.