Patent ID: 8873380

Claim:
A system to set redundant path segments in a multi-ring communication network, the system comprising: a first plurality of nodes communicably connected with each other through a first ring included in the multi-ring communication network; and a second plurality of nodes communicably connected with each other through a second ring included in the multi-ring communication network, wherein the first plurality of nodes includes a first connection node that is adjacently connected with a second connection node included in the second plurality of nodes, and the first connection node is configured to: receive traffic information from adjacent nodes including the second connection node and a pair of nodes that are located adjacent to the first connection node along the first ring, the traffic information storing a pair of input and output node identifiers in association with each of storage areas included in a frame to be transmitted in the multi-ring communication network, an input node identifier identifying an adjacent node from which first data stored in the each of storage areas is input, an output node identifier identifying an adjacent node to which the first data stored in the each of storage areas is output, and set a plurality of redundant path segments each including the second connection node, based on the received traffic information, when the received traffic information includes the output node identifier identifying the second connection node, the plurality of redundant path segments including a currently-used path segment wherein, when no failures occur at the plurality of redundant path segments, second data stored in a storage area that is associated with the output identifier identifying the second connection node in the traffic information is transmitted through the first ring and using one of the plurality of redundant path segments as an active path redundant segment for actually transmitting data, and when a failure occurs at the one of the plurality of redundant path segments, the active redundant path segment is switched from the currently-used path segment to an alternative one of the plurality of redundant path segments, and the second data is transmitted through the first ring, by bypassing a faulty portion and using the alternative one of the plurality of redundant path segments, and wherein the first ring and the second ring are configurable to operate a bi-directional line switched ring (BLSR) architecture in accordance with optical transmission.