Patent ID: 7466646

Claim:
A method of automatically rerouting logical circuit data from a logical circuit failure to a dedicated backup circuit in a data network, the method comprising: determining a failure in a logical circuit in the data network, the logical circuit comprising a communication path for communicating data and at least one logical connection, wherein determining the failure in the logical circuit comprises: obtaining a status by transmitting at least one “clean” test signal to at least one test access point which “loops back” the at least one “clean” test signal for detection, wherein the status includes a committed information rate or a committed burst size, and analyzing the status for the at least one logical connection, wherein analyzing the status information comprises determining if the committed information rate or the committed burst size has been exceeded; when either the committed information rate or the committed burst size has been exceeded, accessing a database to associate a label assigned to and identifying the failed logical circuit with a logical circuit identifier, utilized for identifying the logical circuit in the data network, for the failed logical circuit without manual intervention; identifying an existing logical failover circuit comprising an alternate communication path for communicating the data from the failed logical circuit; and rerouting the data from the failed logical circuit to the logical failover circuit in the data network.