Patent ID: 6981065

Claim:
A method of provisioning a connection across a SONET/SDH network between first and second network nodes, the network comprising at least a top level sub-network and one or more further levels of sub-networks, at least one of the further levels comprising two or more separate sub-networks, and each of the sub-networks comprising two or more network nodes, with sub-networks in the levels being coupled to sub-networks in adjacent levels by shared network nodes, the first and second nodes not being part of the same sub-network, the method comprising: determining a model of the entire network, the model indicating the connections between all sub-networks, and representing each sub-network as a single unit; calculating a route between the sub-networks containing the first and second nodes using the model; and passing the signals along the determined route, and determining the route between nodes within each sub-network locally within the respective sub-network.