Patent ID: 6839319

Claim:
A method of recognizing offices of a ring network having first and second network connecting offices for connecting ring networks together and for dropping a signal from a terminal office, comprising the steps of: recognizing at each node of the ring network, based upon channel setting information, which office the node is; executing a procedure, which is for creating squelch tables of working and protection channels based upon the channel setting information, between a first node, which has been recognized as being the first network connecting office or the terminal office, and other nodes; identifying a second node, which is the second network connecting office, at the first node by the procedure for creating a squelch table of the protection channel; sending office identification information, upon embedding this information in the squelch table of the protection channel, from the first node to the second node; and recognizing, at the second node, that this node is the second network connecting office based upon the office identification information.