Patent ID: 8165031

Claim:
A method for operating a first edge node of a plurality of edge nodes in a backbone network that serves a plurality of edge networks, the first edge node associated with a first virtual network and a second virtual network that are supported by the backbone network, the method comprising: supporting traffic over the first virtual network; receiving a series of control messages over at least one of the first virtual network and the second virtual network; detecting a failure associated with the first virtual network; and supporting the traffic over the second virtual network in response to the detecting the failure associated with the first virtual network, wherein the series of control messages comprises a first series of control messages received over the first virtual network from a first source prior to the failure and a second series of control messages received over the second virtual network from a second source after the failure, and wherein the first series of control messages received over the first virtual network comprises a source address that is associated with the first source that is different than a source address for the second series of control messages received from the second source, such that the traffic sent over the first virtual network prior to the detecting the failure is addressed to the first source and the traffic sent over the second virtual network after the detecting the failure is addressed to the second source.