Telecommunications network restoration architecture

A method of establishing an alternate traffic route in a communications network formed from a plurality of nodes interconnected by a plurality of transmission links, said method comprising the steps of

• polling associated ones of said nodes and links for alarms indicative of at least a disruption in the flow of traffic through ones of said associated ones of said nodes and links,
• responding to receipt of a particular one of said alarms at a rate which causes a predetermined threshold to be reached by outputting a message identifying at least said disruption and its location to one of a number of communications paths for delivery to a central control location,
• responding to receipt of said message at said central control location by locating spare capacity contained in individual ones of said links,
• establishing in real time from said spare capacity a number of orders of connectivity to route said degraded traffic around that one of said associated nodes or links which generated said one alarm condition, and
• responding to receipt from said central control location via one of said communications paths of a message requesting a continuity test of a particular one of said orders of connectivity by monitoring said particular one of said associated ones of said nodes and links which generated said one alarm condition to verify said disruption, and then testing the continuity of said one order of connectivity to determine if said disrupted traffic may be transferred thereto.

A method of establishing an alternate traffic route in a communications network formed from a plurality of nodes interconnected by a plurality of transmission links, said method comprising the steps of

• polling associated ones of said nodes and links for alarms indicative of at least a degradation in the flow of traffic through one of said associated ones of said nodes and links,
• responding to receipt of a particular one of said alarms at a rate which causes a predetermined threshold to be reached by outputting to one of a number of communications paths for delivery to a central control location a message at least identifying said traffic degradation and its location,
• responding to receipt of said message at said central control location by locating spare capacity contained in individual other ones of said links,
• establishing in real time from said spare capacity a number of orders of connectivity to route said degraded traffic around that one of said associated nodes or links which generated said one alarm condition,
• responding to receipt from said central control location via one of said communications paths a message requesting a continuity test of a particular one of said orders of connectivity by monitoring said particular one of said associated ones of said nodes and links which generated said one alarm condition to verify said degradation, and then testing the continuity of said one order of connectivity to determine if said degraded traffic may be transferred thereto, and wherein said one order of connectivity includes at least one DS3 circuit connected between transfer end nodes, in which one of said transfer end nodes transmits said identity code over one direction of said circuit and the other one of said transfer end nodes transmits said identity code over the other opposite direction of said circuits.

A method of establishing and alternate traffic route in a communications network formed from a plurality of nodes interconnected by a plurality of transmission links, said method comprising the steps of

• polling associated ones of said nodes and links for alarms indicative of at least a degradation in the flow of traffic through one of said associated ones of said nodes and links,
• responding to receipt of a particular one of said alarms at a rate which causes a predetermined threshold to be reached by outputting to one of a number of communications paths for delivery to a central control location a message at least identifying said traffic degradation and its location, in which one of said communications paths is a data network and in which another one of said communications paths is a satellite link,
• responding to receipt of said message at said central control location by locating spare capacity contained in individual other ones of said links, and
• establishing in real time from said spare capacity a number of orders of connectivity to route said degraded traffic around that one of said associated nodes or links which generated said one alarm condition.