protecting a connection during implementation of an active connection modify request before initiating the acm request an alternate connection between the source node and the destination node of the connection are established using domain based rerouting the alternate connection may be established in conformance either with the traffic parameters of the existing connection or with the new traffic parameters specified in the acm request if the connection along the original connection is to be torn as a result of lost acm signaling messages the connection is first switched to the alternate connection in a hitless manner if the alternate connection is established in conformance with the new traffic parameters and the acm request can not be implemented along the original connection due for example to resource shortage along the original connection then the connection is switched to the alternate connection in a hitless manner in this way connections are protected in the event of lost acm messages resulting from signal congestion and the acm may be implemented even in the event of resource shortage along the original connection application_number US 69978603 A description referring to fig1 a block diagram of a portion of an example communication network is shown the communication network includes a source node 10 providing communication access to a user of a customer premises equipment cpe 12 through an input line 14 the source node 10 is coupled to a first intermediate node 16.