Claims
- 1. At a node of a telecommunications network along a service path satisfying a demand from a start node to an end node, a method for detecting a failure in the service path, comprising the steps of:
(a) receiving, at the node, incoming payload signals from its previous node along the service path; (b) monitoring, at the node, the incoming payload signals for a loss-of-signal (LOS) condition to detect at the node the failure in the service path; (c) monitoring, at the node, the incoming payload signals for an in-band alarm indication signal to detect at the node the failure in the service path; and (c) monitoring, at the node, an out-of-band signaling channel for a failure message transmitted from its previous node along the service path to detect at the node the failure in the service path.
- 2. The invention of claim 1, wherein:
(d) if the node is an intermediate node of the service path, then transmitting, by the node, the failure message to its next node along the service path; and (e) if the node is the end node of the service path, then transmitting, by the node, a restore message to its previous node along the restoration path.
- 3. The invention of claim 1, wherein the network is a WDM optical mesh network.
- 4. The invention of claim 1, wherein the failure message and the restore message are out-of-band messages transmitted by the node.
- 5. The invention of claim 1, wherein a fault monitoring unit of the node detects the LOS condition and transmits a failure message to an operating system of the node.
- 6. The invention of claim 5, wherein, when the node is an intermediate node along the service path, the node transmits an in-band alarm indication signal to its next node along the service path.
- 7. The invention of claim 1, wherein, after detecting the failure in the service path, the node automatically configures its cross-connect in accordance with the provisioning of the network from the service path to a restoration path for the demand.
- 8. The invention of claim 1, wherein, when the node is an intermediate node along the service path, the node passes the in-band alarm indication signal to its next node along the service path.
- 9. A node for a telecommunications network, comprising:
(a) a cross-connect connected to a plurality of input ports and a plurality of output ports and configurable to connect incoming signals received at an input port to outgoing signals transmitted at an output port; and (b) an operating system configured to control operations of the node, wherein:
the node is configured to receive incoming payload signals from its previous node along a service path for a demand; the node is configured to monitor the incoming payload signals for a loss-of-signal (LOS) condition to detect at the node a failure in the service path; the node is configured to monitor the incoming payload signals for an in-band alarm indication signal to detect at the node the failure in the service path; and the node is configured to monitor an out-of-band signaling channel for a failure message transmitted from its previous node along the service path to detect at the node the failure in the service path.
- 10. The invention of claim 9, wherein:
if the node is an intermediate node of the service path, then the node is configured to transmit the failure message to its next node along the service path; and if the node is the end node of the service path, then the node is configured to transmit a restore message to its previous node along a restoration path for the demand.
- 11. The invention of claim 9, wherein the network is a WDM optical mesh network.
- 12. The invention of claim 9, wherein the failure message and the restore message are out-of-band messages transmitted by the node.
- 13. The invention of claim 9, wherein a fault monitoring unit of the node detects the LOS condition and transmits a failure message to the operating system of the node.
- 14. The invention of claim 13, wherein, when the node is an intermediate node along the service path, the node transmits an in-band alarm indication signal to its next node along the service path.
- 15. The invention of claim 9, wherein, after detecting the failure in the service path, the node automatically configures its cross-connect in accordance with the provisioning of the network from the service path to a restoration path for the demand.
- 16. The invention of claim 9, wherein, when the node is an intermediate node along the service path, the node passes the in-band alarm indication signal to its next node along the service path.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims the benefit of the filing date of U.S. provisional application no. 60/186,898, filed on Mar. 31, 2000.
Provisional Applications (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
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60186898 |
Mar 2000 |
US |