Patent ID: 8004966

Claim:
A method comprising: monitoring, with a first device of a ring network designated as a master device, the ring network to determine whether a fault has occurred in the ring network based on receipt of control traffic, wherein the master device comprises a primary port and a secondary port; based on the determination of whether a fault has occurred in the ring network, transmitting via the secondary port of the master device a network status message to a second device of the ring network designated as an adjacent selective forwarding device, wherein the adjacent selective forwarding device directly couples to the secondary port of the master device via a network link and selectively forwards traffic to the master device in a manner that avoids traffic loops by forwarding the control traffic via the network link to the secondary port of the master device and dropping data traffic until the master device determines the fault has occurred in the ring network; and receiving, subsequent to the determination that the fault has occurred in the ring network, the data traffic with the master device from the adjacent selective forwarding device.