US Patent 7596083 Network element recovery process

A method for recovering circuits of a network element in a communications network includes determining a recovery interval in response to a failure occurring in the network element, and collecting recovery data relating to at least one circuit provisioned in the network element during the recovery interval to support a network service. The recovery data includes identification data and provisioning data. A connection with the network element is established based on the identification data, and the circuit is reprovisioned based on the provisioning data. The method may also include detecting whether an error occurred while reprovisioning the circuit, and logging any detected errors.