Patent attributes
Forwarding Adjacencies (FAs) can be set up between IP/MPLS routers without requiring a Routing Adjacency (RA) to be brought up for every FA. This enables increased bypass connectivity to be established between end-point routers in the IP/MPLS network without attendant additional processing associated with having dedicated RA for each FA. Where it is possible to modify the end-point routers, the physical ports may be configured to support stand-alone FAs. A configured FA at a physical port is then associated with an IP address of a remote end-point router and a connection within the bypass technology. OAM is used to verify connectivity and configuration across the FA. Alternatively, an emulated Ethernet LAN segment may be used for IP traffic to enable full mesh connectivity to be provided by the bypass technology while requiring only one or a small number of RAs to be implemented at each end-point router.
