Patent ID: 8850015

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving at a first portal of a first node data for communication from a first network to a second network that belong to a particular one of a first set of service classes of the first network, the first node residing at least in part in the first network and comprising a first edge and the first portal, the first edge comprising a logical or physical partition of the first node configured to provide network resources for the first network, the first portal comprising a logical or physical partition of the first node configured to provide network resources for a buffer network between and logically or physically separate from the first and second networks, the first node terminating in the first network one of two or more links between the first network and the second network; determining at the first portal a particular one of a second set of service classes of the second network for the data; directing the data from the first portal to a second portal of a second node residing at least in part in the second network, the second node comprising a second edge and the second portal, the second edge comprising a logical or physical partition of the second node configured to provide network resources for the second network, the second portal comprising a logical or physical partition of the second node configured to provide network resources for the buffer network, the second portal of the second node being designated to carry into the second network through the second edge data belonging to the particular one of the second set of service classes; and wherein the buffer network comprises: the first and second portals; a third portal associated with the first node; a fourth portal associated with the second node; a first link directly connecting the first portal to the second portal; a second link directly connecting the first portal to the third portal; a third link directly connecting the second portal to the fourth portal; and a fourth link directly connecting the third portal to the fourth portal; and wherein the first, second, third, and fourth portals are connected together by the first, second, third, and fourth links such that data received at any of the first, second, third, and fourth portals can reach any of the other of the first, second, third, and fourth portals when any one of the first, second, third, and fourth links is not operational.