Patent ID: 7774448

Claim:
A method comprising: extending a spanning hierarchical protection tree in a mesh network by: at a current node of said mesh network, receiving invitations from adjacent nodes of said current node for said current node to become a child of said adjacent nodes; designating as a primary parent of said current node in said tree one of said adjacent nodes that is visited by a first protection path from said current node to a root node of said spanning hierarchical protection tree whose minimum bandwidth link of links is at least as large as the largest minimum bandwidth link of links of all other protection paths from said current node to said root node; and designating as a backup parent of said current node in said tree another one of said adjacent nodes that is visited by a second protection path from said current node to the root node of said spanning hierarchical protection tree whose minimum bandwidth link of links is at least as large as the largest minimum bandwidth link of links of all other protection paths from said current node to said root node other than said first protection path; and upon a failure of a link between said primary parent and said current node: designating said backup parent to be the new primary parent of said current node in said tree; and from said current node, sending an invitation to become a child of said current node in said tree to each adjacent node of said current node that is not said new primary parent.