Patent ID: 7180854

Claim:
A network node comprising: at least one controller; at least one network interface, where each network interface is coupled to the at least one controller, has at least one network port and wherein there are a plurality of network ports; at least a first and a second channel elements selected from the group consisting of network ports, channel sources, and channel sinks, the channel elements capable of passing traffic to network ports of the plurality of network ports; a memory system associated with the at least one controller, the memory system storing a configuration of the node, the configuration of the node comprising at least at least one map, capable of representing at least a first and a second primary route designator, and at least a first-secondary route designator, where each route designator associates at least one channel element with a network port of the plurality of network ports, and where each route designator is associated with a priority; where the first primary route designator and the first secondary route designator associate at least one common channel element with different network ports of the plurality of network ports; where a map is designated an active map, where in a first mode the network node is configured to pass traffic according to the first and second primary route designators of the active map, and in a second mode the network node is configured to pass traffic according to the first secondary route designator of the active map; and wherein the network node transitions from the first mode to the second mode when a failure prevents passing traffic according to the first primary route designator, thereby providing redundancy for traffic from the common channel element.