Techniques for satisfying a plurality of service demands in a data communication network are disclosed. Aspects include identifying a first plurality of edges, each of which connects two of a plurality of nodes in the data communication network, wherein each of the first plurality of edges is associated with one of a plurality of unprotected service demands; generating a spanning tree comprising a second plurality of edges selected from the first plurality of edges, wherein the spanning tree connects all of the plurality of nodes that are connected by the first plurality of edges; and creating a set of service links based on the generated spanning tree.