Reconfiguration for service and self-healing in ATM networks based on virtual paths

A reconfiguration scheme is proposed in ATM networks which exploits the inherent benefits Virtual Paths in effecting capacity efficiency and fast restoration of the network. The reconfiguration is based on the optimization of bandwidth reconfiguration, where spare bandwidth is gathered from idle bandwidth and freed up bandwidth from switched pairs that have surplus bandwidth. The spare bandwidth is used in a self-healing strategy incorporated into the distributed fault management functions.