Patent ID: 7477594

Claim:
A method comprising: restoring a virtual path in an optical network, wherein said restoring comprises identifying a plurality of nodes with resources, wherein said nodes with resources are ones of said nodes having a resource necessary to support said virtual path; provisioning a first physical path for said virtual path, said first physical path comprising ones of said nodes with resources; reserving a resource for a second physical path for said virtual path at ones of said nodes having said resource necessary to support said virtual path, wherein said first physical path and said second physical path are between a first and a second node of said optical network, and one of said first physical path and said second physical path carries protection channel access traffic; detecting a failure in said virtual path, wherein said detection of said failure is done by receiving a failure message; if said first node receives said failure message, identifying one of said first physical path and said second physical path with no failure; provisioning said second physical path using said reserved resource, in response to said identifying; if said protection channel access traffic is using said one of said first physical path and said second physical path with no failure, disconnecting said protection channel access traffic, and generating an alarm for said protection channel access traffic; and if said protection channel access traffic is not using said one of said first physical path and said second physical path with no failure, changing a state of said virtual path to restoring, (i) forwarding a switch path request packet to nodes on said one of said first physical path and said second physical path with no failure, and (ii) waiting for a switch path response packet for a predetermined time interval.