Intelligent network restoration

1. A device comprising:

intelligent wait-to-restore logic, configured to:

receive information about a first failure of a working path for conveying packets in a network;

replace, within a particular duration, the working path with a protection path after the first failure of the working path;

restore the working path in the network;

receive information about a subsequent failure of the working path;

determine a time difference between when the first failure and the subsequent failure occur;

receive information about a recovery of the working path from the subsequent failure; and

instruct a switch to restore the working path to the network after a wait-to-restore period that is approximately greater than or equal to the time difference between when the first failure and the subsequent failure occur.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the working path includes:

a network interface.

3. The device of claim 2 , wherein the network interface includes one of:

a synchronous optical network interface, an asynchronous transfer mode interface, or an Ethernet interface.

4. The device of claim 2 , further comprising:

an agent that detects and sends the information about the first failure, the subsequent failure, and the recovery of the network interface to the intelligent wait-to-restore logic.

5. The device of claim 1 , wherein the switch includes:

a switch in a physical layer in Open Systems Interconnection model.

6. The device of claim 1 , wherein the switch includes:

a route modification logic that restores the working path to the network by modifying a route information base.

7. The device of claim 1 , wherein the intelligent wait-to-restore logic is further configured to:

generate a report that includes information about at least one of:

the first failure, the subsequent failure, the recovery, or a network restore; and

send the report to a management system.

8. The device of claim 1 , further comprising:

an agent that detects the first failure based on a loss of signal or a loss of frame and sends information about the first failure to an element management system.

9. The device of claim 1 , wherein the intelligent wait-to-restore logic is further configured to:

receive instructions to restore the working path to the network from a remote element management system.

10. The device of claim 1 , wherein the device includes one of:

a router; or

a synchronous optical network element.

11. A method comprising:

isolating a first failure of a network interface that transports packets from one point in a network to another point in the network;

replacing, within a particular duration, the network interface with a spare network interface after the first failure of the network interface;

replacing the spare network interface with the network interface;

detecting a subsequent failure of the network interface;

measuring the time difference between when the first failure and the subsequent failure occur;

identifying a recovery of the network interface from the subsequent failure; and

restoring the network interface to the network to enable the network interface to transport packets after a wait-to-restore period that is approximately greater than or equal to the time difference between when the first failure and the subsequent failure occur.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

identifying a first recovery of the interface from the first failure.

13. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

notifying an element management system of the first failure.

14. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

obtaining a new time difference between when the second failure and a third failure occur; and

resetting the wait-to-restore period to a value that is approximately greater than or equal to the new time difference, if the new time difference is greater than the wait-to-restore period.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein isolating a first failure includes one of:

detecting a failure to provide a required quality-of-service at the network interface; or

detecting a loss of signal at the network interface.

16. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

receiving instructions from a remote element manage station to restore the network interface to the network.

17. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

generating a report that includes information about the first failure, the subsequent failure, the recovery, and restoring the network; and

sending the report to a network management system.