Single-failure protection in a load-balanced network architecture

Apparatus for use in processing a traffic flow in a communication network comprising a plurality of nodes, the traffic flow being deliverable from a source node to at least one destination node via one or more intermediate nodes, the apparatus comprising:

• a processing device comprising a processor coupled to a memory, the processing device being operative to split the traffic flow into a plurality of parts, and to distribute the parts to respective ones of a plurality of intermediate nodes such that the parts are routed from the source node to the at least one destination node in a disjoint manner.

An article of manufacture comprising a machine-readable medium storing one or more programs for use in processing a traffic flow in a communication network comprising a plurality of nodes, the traffic flow being deliverable from a source node to at least one destination node via one or more intermediate nodes, the one or more programs when executed in a processor implementing a method comprising the steps of:

• splitting the traffic flow at the source node into a plurality of parts;
• and
• distributing the parts to respective ones of the intermediate nodes such that the parts are routed from the source node to the at least one destination node in a disjoint manner.