Patent ID: 7007028

Claim:
A method for synchronizing data on a management system (MS) with data on at least one network element in an optical network, the method comprising: (a) incrementing a MS table counter each time a change occurs in a MS table, wherein the change in the MS table is made when the MS receives a notification of a change in a network element (NE) table on the at least one network element; (b) incrementing a NE table counter each time a change occurs in the NE table; (c) polling the NE table counter; (d) determining if the NE table counter equals the MS table counter, wherein if the NE table counter does not equal the MS table counter, then a notification was missed by the MS; (e) fetching a row counter from the NE table, if the NE table counter does not equal the MS table counter, wherein the NE row counter corresponds to a row in the NE table; (f) determining if the NE row counter equals a corresponding MS row counter; (g) synchronizing a row in the MS table with the row in the NE table, if the NE row counter does not equal the corresponding MS row counter.