Method for establishing a recovery connection in an optical network

The method involves allocating optical transport resources to a recovery connection along a connection path. An optical signal (61) is transmitted along the path by the resources, and wavelength selective switches are adjusted, during a recovery connection testing phase (60). An adjusting state of the switches is stored, and the transmission of the signal is interrupted at the end of the testing phase. The adjustment of the switches in the stored state is reinitialized, and the transmission of the optical signal is restarted during recovery connection activation phase (80). An independent claim is also included for an optical network element comprising optical transport resources.