Network backhaul systems and methods

A system comprising:

• a first mobile telephone switching office subsystem and a second mobile telephone switching office subsystem configured to receive and forward network traffic;
• a hub router communicatively connected to said first and second mobile telephone switching office subsystems and to a plurality of mobile telephone cell site subsystems via at least one network backhaul connection, said hub router communicatively disposed between each of said first and second mobile telephone switching office subsystems and said plurality of mobile telephone cell site subsystems, said hub router configured to
• establish at least one communication tunnel from said hub router to said first mobile telephone switching office subsystem,
• establish at least one backup communication tunnel from said hub router to said second mobile telephone switching office subsystem,
• detect at least one traffic forwarding failure associated with said at least one communication tunnel, and
• redirect network backhaul traffic directed to said first mobile telephone switching office subsystem via said at least one communication tunnel to said second mobile telephone switching office subsystem via said at least one backup communication tunnel in response to said at least one traffic forwarding failure.

A method comprising:

• establishing a communication path between a mobile telephone cell site router and a first aggregation router of a mobile telephone switching office subsystem;
• pre-signaling a backup communication path between said mobile telephone cell site router and a second aggregation router of said mobile telephone switching office subsystem;
• detecting a traffic forwarding failure associated with said communication path;
• and
• automatically redirecting network backhaul traffic directed to said first aggregation router via said communication path to said second aggregation router via said backup communication path in response to said traffic forwarding failure.