Patent ID: 8670302

Claim:
A method comprising the steps of: receiving a signal indicative of a failure of a working connection in a mesh network having a headend node, a tailend node and an intermediate node, and having a protecting connection; and transmitting an activation message via the protecting connection from at least one of the headend node and the tailend node to the intermediate node for activating the protecting connection, wherein the headend node includes a first line module and a second line module, and wherein the step of receiving the signal indicative of the failure of the working connection is defined further as receiving the signal indicative of the failure of the working connection by the first line module of the headend node, and wherein the step of transmitting the activation message is defined further as transmitting the activation message by the second line module of the headend node, wherein the protecting connection is a first protecting connection, the intermediate node is a first intermediate node, and the activation message is a first activation message, and wherein the headend node waits for a message from the tailend node indicating that the first protecting connection is activated, and in an absence of receiving the message selects a second protecting connection and transmits a second activation message to a second intermediate node of the second protecting connection.