Patent ID: 8149693

Claim:
A method of implementing association in an Automatic Switched Optical Network (ASON), the method comprising: sending, by a node of a first associated service, an association request message to a node of a second associated service, wherein the node of the first associated service and the node of the second associated service are inside the ASON, the first associated service and the second associated service are a pair of services transmitted on two paths according to 1+1 protection mechanism, the first associated service and the second associated service have a common initial node and a common terminal node which are outside of the ASON and have no common node inside the ASON; acquiring, by the node of the first associated service, path information of the second associated service via an association response message from the node of the second associated service, and associating the second associated service to the first associated service according to the path information of the second associated service; when the first associated service is rerouted to generate a corresponding third associated service, the method further comprises: the node of the first associated service deleting the path information of the second associated service saved in itself, and canceling the association relation between the first associated service and the second associated service; and a node of the third associated service acquiring the path information of the second associated service from the node of the second associated service, and when determining a path for transmitting the third associated service, excluding the nodes and/or links recorded in the path information of the second associated service from the path for transmitting the third associated service.