Patent ID: 8670347

Claim:
A method for automatically discovering an optical fibre connection within a network element, comprising: determining, by a destination board, whether the destination board is connected with a source single board for the first time according to a triple group message which is received within a predefined period and which is sent by the source single board; if yes, generating, by the destination board, a sextuple group message according to the triple group message sent by the source single board and a triple group message of the destination board, sending the sextuple group message to an Automatically Switched Optical Network (ASON), and storing the sextuple group message in a local database; otherwise, sending, by the destination board when timing is reached, the ASON the sextuple group message which is stored in the local database and which corresponds to the triple group message sent by the source single board; and when receiving the sextuple group message sent by the destination board and determining that the sextuple group message is not stored locally, detecting, by the ASON, validity of a connection corresponding to the sextuple group message, locally storing the sextuple group message if the connection is valid, and outputting connection error information if the connection is invalid.