Patent ID: 7782877

Claim:
A method comprising: enabling, via a first link in a provider network, communications between a first network and a user device associated with a second network; determining whether the first link is unavailable; enabling the communications via a second link in the provider network and a public network using a dedicated point-to-point protocol (PPP)/layer 2 tunneling protocol (L2TP) tunnel through at least a portion of the public network, responsive to a determination that the first link is unavailable, where the first link does not traverse the public network; enabling, via a third link in the provider network, communications between the first network and a user device associated with a third network; enabling, via a fourth link in the provider network and a second dedicated PPP/L2TP tunnel, the communications between the first network and the user device associated with the third network; and storing, by a gateway associated with the second and fourth links, a first pair of addresses respectively assigned to the gateway and a router associated with the second network, and a second pair of addresses respectively assigned to the gateway and a router associated with the third network.