Method and system for prioritized rerouting of logical circuit data in a data network

1. A method to reroute logical circuit data in a data network, the method comprising:

identifying a failed logical circuit established for a customer in the data network;

determining a first quality of service parameter for communication of data associated with the customer in the failed logical circuit;

identifying a logical failover circuit comprising an alternate communication path for communicating the data associated with the customer;

determining a second quality of service parameter for communication of data in the logical failover circuit;

when the first quality of service parameter for the failed logical circuit is equal to or less than the second quality of service parameter for the logical failover circuit, rerouting the data associated with the customer to the logical failover circuit without requiring authorization from the customer to communicate the data at the second quality of service parameter; and

when the second quality of service parameter for the logical failover circuit is a lower level of quality than the first quality of service parameter for the failed logical circuit:

prompting the customer for an authorization to communicate the data associated with the customer via the logical failover circuit at the second quality of service parameter;

when the authorization is received, rerouting the data from the failed logical circuit to the logical failover circuit; and

when the authorization is denied, not rerouting the data to the logical failover circuit.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first quality of service parameter for the failed logical circuit is a traffic descriptor for logical circuit data.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first quality of service parameter for the failed logical circuit is a variable frame relay real time parameter.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first quality of service parameter for the failed logical circuit is a variable frame relay non-real time parameter.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first quality of service parameter for the failed logical circuit is a constant bit rate parameter.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first quality of service parameter for the failed logical circuit is a variable bit rate parameter.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first quality of service parameter for the failed logical circuit is an unspecified bit rate parameter.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the logical failover circuit comprises a dedicated failover logical connection in a failover data network.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the dedicated failover logical connection comprises a network-to-network interface.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the logical failover circuit is identified by a logical circuit identifier in the data network.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the logical circuit identifier is a data link connection identifier (DLCI).

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the logical circuit identifier is a virtual path/virtual circuit identifier (VPI/VCI).

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the logical failover circuit comprises a permanent virtual circuit.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the logical failover circuit comprises a switched virtual circuit.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data network comprises a frame relay network.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data network comprises an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network.

17. A network management system to reroute logical circuit data in a data network, the network management system comprising:

a logical element module to receive status information for a logical circuit established for a customer in the data network from a network device, the logical circuit comprising a communication path for communicating data associated with the customer; and

a network management module, in communication with the logical element module, the network management module to:

identify a failed logical circuit in the data network;

determine a first quality of service parameter for communication of data in the failed logical circuit;

identify a logical failover circuit comprising an alternate communication path to communicate the data associated with the customer in the failed logical circuit;

determine a second quality of service parameter to communicate data in the logical failover circuit;

when the first quality of service parameter for the failed logical circuit is equal to or less than the second quality of service parameter for the logical failover circuit, reroute the data associated with the customer to the logical failover circuit without requiring authorization from the customer to communicate the data associated with the customer at the second quality of service parameter;

when the first quality of service parameter for the failed logical circuit is a higher level of quality than the second quality of service parameter for the logical failover circuit;

require authorization from the customer to communicate the data associated with the customer at the second quality of service parameter before rerouting the data associated with the customer from the failed logical circuit to the logical failover circuit; and

when the authorization is denied, not reroute the data associated with the customer from the failed logical circuit to the logical failover circuit.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the first quality of service parameter for the failed logical circuit is a traffic descriptor for logical circuit data.

19. The system of claim 17 , wherein the first quality of service parameter for the failed logical circuit is a variable frame relay real time parameter.

20. The system of claim 17 , wherein the first quality of service parameter for the failed logical circuit is a variable frame relay non-real time parameter.

21. The system of claim 17 , wherein the first quality of service parameter for the failed logical circuit is a constant bit rate parameter.

22. The system of claim 17 , wherein the first quality of service parameter for the failed logical circuit is a variable bit rate parameter.

23. The system of claim 17 , wherein the first quality of service parameter for the failed logical circuit is an unspecified bit rate parameter.

24. The system of claim 17 , wherein the logical failover circuit comprises a dedicated failover logical connection in a failover data network.

25. The system of claim 24 , wherein the dedicated failover logical connection comprises a network-to-network interface.

26. The system of claim 17 , wherein the logical failover circuit is identified by a logical circuit identifier in the data network.

27. The system of claim 26 , wherein the logical circuit identifier is a data link connection identifier (DLCI).

28. The system of claim 26 , wherein the logical circuit identifier is a virtual path/virtual circuit identifier (VPI/VCI).

29. The system of claim 17 , wherein the logical failover circuit comprises a permanent virtual circuit.

30. The system of claim 17 , wherein the logical failover circuit comprises a switched virtual circuit.

31. The system of claim 17 , wherein the data network comprises a frame relay network.

32. The system of claim 17 , wherein the data network comprises an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network.

33. A network management system to reroute logical circuit data in a data network, the network management system comprising:

a logical element module to receive status information for a logical circuit established for a customer in the data network from a network device, the logical circuit to communicate data according to a first protocol having a first set of quality of service parameters; and

a network management module, in communication with the logical element module, the network management module to:

identify a failure in the logical circuit based on the status information;

determine a first quality of service parameter from the first set of quality of service parameters to communicate data in the failed logical circuit;

provision a logical failover circuit comprising an alternate communication path to communicate data according to a second protocol having a second set of quality of service parameters different from the first set of quality of service parameters;

determine a second quality of service parameter from the second set of quality of service parameters to communicate data in the logical failover circuit;

when the second quality of service parameter of the second protocol exceeds or equates to the first quality of service parameter of the first protocol, automatically reroute the data from the failed logical circuit to the logical failover circuit; and

when the second quality of service parameter of the second protocol is less than the first quality of service parameter of the first protocol:

prompt for an authorization to communicate the data via the logical failover circuit using the second quality of service parameter;

when the authorization is received, reroute the data from the failed logical circuit to the logical failover circuit; and

when the authorization is denied, not reroute the data to the logical failover circuit.