Patent Document ID: 9025464
Application ID: 10613531
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of providing a mesh telecommunications network with spare capacity arranged in pre-configured cycles, where the mesh telecommunications network includes multiple cycles that may be potentially configured to provide restoration paths, the method comprising the steps of: pre-selecting a set of candidate cycles for forming into pre-configured cycles before determining a joint allocation of working paths and spare capacity in the mesh telecommunications network, the set of candidate cycles comprising a sub-set of the multiple cycles selected based on one or more selection criteria, in which pre-selecting a set of candidate cycles includes ranking a set of closed paths in the mesh telecommunications network according to the degree to which each closed path protects spans on and off the closed path by comparison to the cost of the closed path, and selecting candidate cycles from the set of closed paths, in which spans on the closed path are scored differently from spans off the closed path; determining a joint allocation of working paths and spare capacity in the mesh telecommunications network based on the set of candidate cycles; and providing the mesh telecommunications network with spare capacity arranged in pre-configured cycles according to the allocation determined in the preceding step.