A network (10) having an enhanced restoration architecture includes at least two Digital Access Cross-Connect Systems (DACS) 20 having the ability to uniquely identify a signal. When a restoration route is established in the network following a failure, the DACS situated at an origin and destination nodes of restoration route will launch and recover, the particularly identified signal provided continuity exists on the route. In this way, the DACS can automatically determine the continuity of the restoration route without the need to separately perform time-consuming continuity tests of the individual paths comprising the restoration route.