Patent ID: 7911937

Claim:
A communication network architecture comprising: a plurality of access packet switches; a plurality of transit packet switches; a plurality of hub packet switches; a plurality of backbone communication trunks coupling the hub packet switches together; a plurality of transit communication trunks coupling the hub packet switches to the transit packet switches wherein each one of the transit packet switches is coupled to two of the hub packet switches by physically diverse ones of the transit communication trunks, wherein at least one of the transit packet switches is configured to receive traffic and to send a portion of the traffic to each of the two of the hub packet switches during normal operation and during non-normal operation to divert a portion of traffic from at least one congested or failing transit communication trunk of the plurality of transit communication trunks to at least another transit communication trunk of the plurality of transit communication trunks; a plurality of access communication trunks coupling the transit packet switches to the access packet switches wherein each one of the access packet switches is coupled to two of the transit packet switches by physically diverse ones of the access communication trunks, wherein at least one of the access packet switches is configured to receive traffic and to send a portion of the traffic to each of the two of the transit packet switches during normal operation and during non-normal operation to divert a portion of traffic from at least one congested or failing access communication trunk of the plurality of access communication trunks to at least another access communication trunk of the plurality of access communication trunks; wherein the access packet switches and the transit packet switches are configured to exchange user communication packets over the access communication trunks, wherein the transit packet switches and the hub packet switches are configured to exchange the user communication packets over the transit communication trunks, and wherein the hub packet switches are configured to exchange the user communication packets with one another over the backbone communication trunks; and wherein the access packet switches, the transit packet switches, and the hub packet switches are configured to receive a control message indicating an individual trunk of the access communication trunks, the transit communications trunks, nd backbone communication trunks, and responsively change a protection scheme for the user communication packets through the individual trunk from a first scheme at a first layer to a second scheme at a second layer based on a required network quality level.