Patent ID: 7944815

Claim:
A method of network recovery from link failure, the network comprising a master node, a plurality of transit nodes and a plurality of links, each node having at least two ports, a link from the plurality of links coupling a first port of each node to a second port of another node, the method comprising: receiving from a transit node having a blocked port a request to open the blocked port for data forwarding, wherein the blocked port is associated with a restored link, and wherein upon transmission of the request, the transit node starts a repeat timer and a first timer; starting a health-check timer and transmitting a health-check message on a primary port of the master node to determine that all failed links of the network are restored; upon determining that the health-check message is received at a secondary port of the master node, transmitting a message to each transit node indicating that all failed links are restored; and upon determining that the health-check message is not received at the secondary port of the master node before the health-check timer lapsed, transmitting a message to the transit nodes to open the blocked port associated with the restored link for data forwarding, wherein, upon determining at the transit node that the first timer lapsed and a permission to open the blocked port is not received from the master node, the transit node restarts the first timer and retransmits the request to open the blocked port for data forwarding; and wherein, upon determining that the repeat timer lapsed and the permission to open the blocked port is not received from the master node, the transit node opens the blocked port of the transit node for data forwarding.