The invention relates to a method and to a network control unit for deactivating a network component for example, one or several connections or an entire network node, the method being used to carry out deactivation in simple manner without impairing the traffic and optionally, the reliability. The invention also relates to a method for deactivating a network component, in particular one or several connections and/or a network node in a communication network including a plurality of network components. The method includes: a) the network components which are to be deactivated are identified; b) a new metric set (M1) for the remaining network components is calculated c) the new metric set is configured in the network and the network is rerouted; and d) the network components which are to be deactivated are removed.