Method and system for restoring coincident line and facility failures

Abstract

The system and method of the present invention provide restoration of coincident line and facility failures. The system of the present invention includes light termination equipment (LTE) that is capable of detecting failures, determining the type of component that failed, determining which restoration facility to use based on the type of component that failed, and providing restoration. The system of the present invention also includes spare capacity for restoration, including protect channels and an optical restoration network. In addition, the system of the present invention includes an optical cross connect switch (OCCS) that is capable of switching electrical signals to the optical restoration network. The method of the present invention is involves detecting a failure, determining the type of component that failed, and sending an alarm to a centralized management center.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . In a network subject to a previous failure and a subsequent failure, a method for restoring the network comprising the steps of: 
 overcoming the previous failure using a first protection scheme;    detecting the subsequent failure;    determining that the previous failure can be overcome using a second protection scheme;    determining that the subsequent failure can be overcome using the first protection scheme but can not be overcome by using the second protection scheme;    applying the second protection scheme to overcome the previous failure; and    applying the first protection scheme to overcome the subsequent failure.    
     
     
         2 . The method of    claim 1    further comprising the step of: 
 determining that the first protection scheme is unable to overcome the subsequent failure because the first protection scheme has already been applied to overcoming the previous failure.  
 
     
     
         3 . The method of    claim 1    wherein the first protection scheme is designed to circumvent a failure affecting a span in the network using a spare resource within the span and the second protection scheme is designed to circumvent a failure affecting a span in the network using a resource outside of the span.  
     
     
         4 . The method of    claim 1    wherein the step of determining that the previous failure can be overcome using a second protection scheme is based upon a failure type associated with the failure.  
     
     
         5 . The method of    claim 1    wherein the step of determining that the previous failure can be overcome using a second protection scheme is based upon a whether the previous failure is a module failure or a line failure.  
     
     
         6 . The method of    claim 1    wherein the step of determining that the subsequent failure can be overcome using a first protection scheme is based upon a failure type associated with the subsequent failure.  
     
     
         7 . The method of    claim 1    wherein the step of determining that the subsequent failure can be overcome using a first protection scheme is based upon a whether the subsequent failure is a module failure or a line failure.