Method and apparatus for provisioning a protection pathway of a link joining a first point in a network and a second point in the network. The method includes the step of determining a shortest path between the first point and the second point in a protection graph, computing a length of said shortest...http://www.google.com/patents/US7990846?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US7990846 - Method and apparatus for provisioning a hop limited protection pathway in a network
