A method and system for automated discovery of logical network elements in a communications network speeds up and reduces the cost of discovering network elements and mapping network topology of network inter-connections. The method comprises the steps of building a cache of protection mechanisms in the communications network, building a network graph based on physical links of the communications network, traversing the network graph, comprising the step of, at each vertex of the network graph, determining whether there is a deterministic path that leads to a next vertex of the network graph, performing a depth first search on the network graph to determine connected components of the network graph, and creating the logical network elements based on the connected components of the network graph.