US Patent 8000264 Configuration management of IP/MPLS router rings

The invention is directed to managing changes to a configuration of routers connected in a ring network architecture. Embodiments of the invention alleviate risks to services carried over a ring of IP/MPLS routers when configuration changes are made to the ring, such as inserting a router into, or removing a router from, the ring. To that end, embodiments of the invention automate some steps of such a configuration change operation that were previously performed manually, and coordinate those steps with other steps of the operation using a procedure stored as instructions on a computer readable media and executed by a computer system in order to effect and validate a correct sequencing of the steps.