Patent ID: 7633859

Claim:
A method for performing fast reroute (FRR) operations at the edge of a computer network, the network having first and second edge devices coupled to a neighboring routing domain, the method comprising: detecting a loss of communication between the first edge device and the neighboring routing domain; receiving a data packet at the first edge device, the received data packet containing a destination address that is reachable via the neighboring routing domain; determining whether a virtual private network (VPN) label value stored in a label stack of the received data packet is a protected VPN label value, the protected VPN label value indicating that the received packet was previously rerouted in accordance with FRR operations; and rerouting, in response to determining that the VPN label value stored in the received data packet is not a protected VPN label value, the received data packet to the second edge device for forwarding to the neighboring routing domain.