Redundant transmission system with disconnection of a transmission path exhibiting faulty transmission behavior

A method for disconnecting and activating a transmission path having a faulty transmission behavior in a transmission system, comprising the steps of:

• respectively allocating cyclically progressing sequence numbers to message cells in a plurality of message cells for a virtual connection;
• duplicating at least one of said message cells multiple times to form a group of redundant message cells equal in number to a plurality of redundant transmission paths;
• respectively transmitting said redundant message cells via said redundant transmission paths;
• at a reception location, storing the sequence number for each transmission path of a last-transmitted message cell;
• for each transmission path, comparing the sequence number of a currently incoming message cell with the sequence number stored for the transmission path;
• dependent on said comparison, determining whether said currently-incoming message cell is accepted for further processing;
• maintaining a counter state for each transmission path;
• when a currently-incoming message cell is accepted for further processing, incrementing said counter state for the transmission path, from which the currently incoming message cell arrived, by a first value;
• if said currently-incoming message cell has a faulty sequence number, decrementing the counter state of the transmission path, from which said currently-incoming message cell arrived, by a second value which is larger than said first value;
• and
• excluding any transmission path having a counter state which reaches a lower threshold value from subsequently accepting message cells for further processing.