US Patent 7590054 Protection switching in an ethernet packet-switched network

Protection switching in an Ethernet packet-switched network includes establishing first and second virtual circuits. The first virtual circuit carries packet traffic associated with a different service instance from packet traffic carried by the second virtual circuit. Packet traffic of the first virtual circuit is transmitted from a source network element to a sink network element through a first Ethernet tunnel. Packet traffic of the second virtual circuit is transmitted from the same source network element to the same sink network element through a second Ethernet tunnel. The second Ethernet tunnel is a different path through the Ethernet packet-switched network from the first Ethernet tunnel. During a protection switch, the first virtual circuit is switched from the first Ethernet tunnel to the second Ethernet tunnel. After the switch, packet traffic of the first virtual circuit and packet traffic of the second virtual circuit are transmitted over the second Ethernet tunnel.