Abstract: In a broadband ISDN system where each switching node is connected to each adjacent node by a transmission line having communication links and a service link, the switching node comprises a self-routing network for routing a cell from an input to an output of the network according to a virtual path identifier it contains. Static connections are established between communication links and the routing network by a digital cross-connect system. A virtual path memory stores data indicating link-to-link connections associated with normal virtual paths and link-to-link connections associated with alternate virtual paths. A fault detector is coupled to the communication links to detect a link failure. If a link failure occurs, a fault message is transmitted to adjacent switching nodes through service links, and data corresponding to the faulty link is retrieved from the memory in response to a fault message that is received from the fault detector or from an adjacent node.

Abstract: In the event of a failure on a transmission line, a sender, or a terminal node of the failed line, broadcasts CONTROL packets to each of all adjacent tandem nodes, containing a hop count and node trace data. In response to a CONTROL packet, each tandem node increments the hop count of the packet, updates its node trace data, makes a record of all arriving CONTROL packets, and broadcasts copies of each arriving CONTROL packet to adjacent nodes if the hop count is smaller than a prescribed value. A chooser, which is the other terminal node of the failed line, responds to CONTROL packets from a given node for sending back to the given node as many RETURN packets as there are failed channels.