or dual homed network configuration includes designating the switching devices 130 serving a dual homed access network 120 1 identifies one of the switching devices as primary and the other as secondary both being dual homed partners of the other dual homed networks which in the examples shown may be smlt networks or stp spanning tree networks provide multiple switching devices 130 at the transport network 110 edge edge devices to the access network 120 if the access network 120 is dual homed this includes configuring a static route 112 1 to the access network 120 1 between the switching device 130 2 and the origin device 130 3 as depicted at step 301 and configuring a second static route 112 1 to the access network between the partner device 130 2 and the origin device 130 3 as shown at step 302 a third dynamic 114 or virtual route is configured at step 303 that avoids redundant routing entries to the access network 120 1 through both the switching device 130 1 and the partner device 130 2 by maintaining separate entries for the static route the second static route and the dynamic route as shown at step 304 the dynamic route 114 defines a tunnel to each of the switching device 130 1 and the partner device 130 2 in which each respective tunnel defines a separate physical path 112 1 112 2 to the access network 120 and in which the dynamic.