METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR ERROR RECOVERY IN OPAQUE NETWORKS USING ENCRYPTED ERROR LOCATIONS

摘要

In response to a failure within a sub-network of a heterogeneous network, an external device is signaled that the failure has occurred by inclusion of an encoded identifier of the failure location with the signaling. The encoded identifier enables identification of the failure location within the sub-network while masking the identity of the failure location to the external device, and may be realized by using an encrypted sub-object or a token that is associated with the failure location information, which remains stored within the sub-network. The external device responds by issuing a path-establishment message indicating that a new communications path should be established and should exclude the failure location as identified by the encoded identifier, which is included in the path-establishment message.