Patent ID: 7349351

Claim:
A method for determining a master ring for a communications network, the communications network comprising a plurality of individual rings, each of said individual rings having a plurality of nodes interconnected in a ring structure, each of said individual rings having at least one node thereof in common with at least one other one of said individual rings, the method comprising the steps of: identifying a dominating set of rings, said dominating set of rings comprising one or more of said individual rings such that one or more of said plurality of individual rings not in said dominating set has at least one node in common with at least one of said individual rings in said dominating set; enumerating a set of one or more possible openings of one or more of said rings in said dominating set; for a given element of said enumerated set of possible openings of said rings in said dominating set, enumerating a limited set of possible openings of at least one of said individual rings not in said dominating set, each of said possible openings in said limited set of possible openings of said rings not in said dominating set being consistent with said given element of said enumerated set of possible openings of said rings in said dominating set; and determining whether at least one of said possible openings for each of said at least one of said rings not in said dominating set, in combination with said given element of said enumerated set of possible openings of said one or more of said rings in said dominating set, is representative of a master ring for said communications network.