Patent ID: 7619966

Claim:
A redundant hub-spoke virtual private LAN (VPN) having a plurality of emulated LANs (ELANs), each connected at a provider edge (PE) node over a service provider network, comprising: a first hub node serving client equipment (CE) devices connected on a first ELAN, connected at a first of said PE nodes, capable of performing as a root bridge node of the VPN; a spoke node connected to a second of said PE nodes, serving CE devices on a second ELAN; a second hub node connected to a third of said PE nodes, interconnected with said first hub node through said service provider network and said first and third PE nodes wherein said first PE node and said second PE node connect through said service provider network to form a first point-to-point link L1 interconnecting said first hub node and said spoke node, wherein at least one of said first, second and third PE nodes detect a failure associated with said first hub node and, in response to said detecting, of sending a failure notice, wherein said third PE and said second PE, in response to said failure notice, establish a redundant point-to-point link L2 through said service provider network, L2 interconnecting said second hub node and said spoke, and wherein, in response to said failure notice, said second hub node performs as the root bridge node of the VPN.