Patent ID: 7453795

Claim:
A method of operating a control system to calculate a fault recovery plan for a link in a communication network, the method comprising: grouping link constituents for the link into constituent groups based on Quality-of-Service (QoS) requirements for each of the link constituents, determining link back-up routes that are disjoint from the link, determining performance characteristics for the link back-up routes, and assigning 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, then determining sub-paths for the link, determining sub-path back-up routes that are disjointed from the sub-paths, determining performance characteristics for the sub-path back-up routes, and assigning 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, then determining paths for the link, determining path back-up routes that are disjointed from the paths, determining performance characteristics for the path back-up routes, and assigning 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.