Patent ID: 6950409

Claim:
A method for provisioning non-preemptible unprotected traffic (NUT) in a bi-directional ring, the ring comprising a plurality of nodes, each node comprising a local NUT table operable to store NUT provisioning data for the node and a cross-connect table operable to store cross-connect provisioning data for the node, comprising: distributing a master NUT table to each of the nodes, the master NUT table comprising NUT provisioning data for the ring; verifying the master NUT table at each of the nodes, wherein verifying the master NUT table comprises: comparing the NUT provisioning data in the master NUT table to the cross-connect provisioning data in the cross-connect table; and rejecting the master NUT table as unverified when the NUT provisioning data conflicts with the cross-connect provisioning data; and storing in the local NUT table at each of the nodes the NUT provisioning data in the master NUT table when the master NUT table is verified by every node.