Patent ID: 7230916

Claim:
A method of operating a telecommunications network in which the telecommunications network includes plural distinct nodes interconnected by plural distinct spans, each node having a switching machine for making and breaking connections between links in adjacent spans forming span paths through the node, the method comprising the steps of: (a1) selecting an originating node; (a2) initiating an automatic search from the originating node to identify a set of successive intermediate nodes that, together with the originating node, may form a closed path having at least one spare link between each pair of adjacent nodes in the closed path; b) forming a cross-connection at each node in the closed path to connect spare links in each of the adjacent spans lying in the closed path and thus form a span path through each node in the closed path; in which searching for a set of successive intermediate nodes that may form a closed path comprises broadcasting statelets from successive nodes in the network alone successive spans having at least one spare link in each span at least until a first statelet is broadcast to the originating node, in which the successive nodes are not capable of forming a closed path that does not include the originating node and each statelet is prevented from being broadcast along the span on which the statelet arrived at the intermediate node; in which broadcasting statelets further comprises initiating a broadcast from an originating node by broadcasting an originating statelet and receiving incoming statelets at intermediate nodes, and broadcasting at least one statelet received by each intermediate node to one or more nodes adjacent to the intermediate node and connected to the intermediate node by at least one spare link, only one statelet derived from the same originating statelet being broadcast, at any intermediate node, on any one span; each statelet broadcast through the network being modified at each intermediate node to update a route field in the statelet that records the successive nodes by which the statelet has been broadcast; and each statelet broadcast through the network being modified at each intermediate node to update a numPaths field in the statelet that records the number of paths available for restoration of telecommunications traffic along the successive nodes by which the statelet has been broadcast.