Fault recovery for communication networks

A control system to calculate a fault recovery plan for a link in a communication network, the control system comprising:

• a processing system configured to group link constituents for the link into constituent groups based on Quality-of-Service (QoS) requirements for each of the link constituents, determine link back-up routes that are disjoint from the link, determine performance characteristics for the link back-up routes, ad assign at least a first portion of the constituent groups to at least a portion of the link back-up routes based on the QoS requirements of the first portion of the constituent groups and the performance characteristics of the link back-up routes;
• the processing system further configured, if any of the constituent groups are unassigned to the link back-up routes, to determine sub-paths for the link, determine sub-path back-up routes that are disjointed from the sub-paths, determine performance characteristics for the sub-path back-up routes, and assign at least a second portion of the constituent groups to at least a portion of the sub-path back-up routes based on the QoS requirements of the second portion of the constituent groups and the performance characteristics for the sub-path back-up routes;
• the processing system further configured, if any of the constituent groups are unassigned to either the link back-up routes of the sub-path back-up routes, to determine paths for the link, determine path back-up routes that are disjointed from the paths, determine performance characteristics for the path back-up routes, and assign at least a third portion of the constituent groups to at least a portion of the path back-up routes based on the QoS requirements of the third portion of the constituent groups and the performance characteristics for the path back-up routes;
• and
• a communication interface operationally coupled to the processing system and configured to exchange control signals with the communication network.

A computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon for operating a control system to calculate a fault recovery plan for a link in a communication network, wherein the instructions, when executed by the control system, direct the control system to:

• group link constituents for the link into constituent groups based on Quality-of-Service (QoS) requirements for each of the link constituents, determine link back-up routes that are disjoint from the link, determine performance characteristics for the link back-up routes, and assign at least a first portion of the constituent groups to at least a portion of the link back-up routes based on the QoS requirements of the first portion of the constituent groups and the performance characteristics of the link back-up routes;
• if any of the constituent groups are unassigned to the link back-up routes, to determine sub-paths for the link, determine sub-path back-up routes that are disjointed from the sub-paths, determine performance characteristics for the sub-paths back-up routes, and assign at least a second portion of the constituent groups to at least a portion of the sub-path back-up routes based on the QoS requirements of the second portion of the constituent groups and the performance characteristics for the sub-path back-up routes;
• and
• if any of the constituent groups are unassigned to either the link back-up routes or the sub-path back-up routes, to determine paths for the link, determine path back-up routes that are disjointed from the paths, determine performance characteristics for the path back-up routes, and assign at least a third portion of the constituent groups to at least a portion of the path back-up routes based on the QoS requirements of the third portion of the constituent groups and the performance characteristics for the path back-up routes.