Patent ID: 8260133

Claim:
A restoration signaling protocol for restoring service to a service path between an ingress end Optical cross-Connect (OXC) and an egress end OXC over a restoration path in a mesh network comprising: configuring an ingress end OXC to egress end OXC restoration path for the service path when the service path is provisioned; configuring restoration standbys for the restoration path wherein a restoration standby has one lightpath and each lightpath is assigned one wavelength channel; storing the restoration path at the ingress end and egress end OXCs; choosing a control OXC for the restoration path which may be the ingress end OXC or the egress end OXC defining an opposite end OXC; detecting a service path failure; initiating service path restoration comprising: accessing the restoration path at the control OXC; issuing a disconnect command at the control OXC disconnecting a client add/drop port from the service path wavelength channel; issuing a cross-connect command at the control OXC cross-connecting the client add/drop port for the service path to a first restoration standby wavelength channel; sending an X-connect message on the restoration path from the control OXC to a first restoration path regenerator OXC containing the first restoration standby wavelength channel; if the first regenerator OXC is not at the opposite end OXC, selecting a second restoration standby wavelength channel; issuing a cross-connect command cross-connecting the first restoration standby wavelength channel to the second restoration standby wavelength channel; and forwarding an X-connect message to a next regenerator OXC on the restoration path containing the second restoration standby wavelength channel; if the first regenerator OXC is at the opposite end OXC, issuing a disconnect command disconnecting a client add/drop port from the service path wavelength channel; and issuing a cross-connect command cross-connecting the first restoration standby wavelength channel to the client add/drop port at the opposite end OXC; if a cross-connect command at the control end OXC of the restoration path is not successful, sending a Back-off message in the direction of the opposite end OXC of the restoration path to remove the restoration path and release occupied restoration resources; and if a cross-connect command at the opposite end OXC of the restoration path is not successful, sending a Back-off message in the direction of the control end OXC of the restoration path to remove the restoration path and release occupied restoration resources.