A NETWORK ELEMENT (100) A WORKING PATH OF AN OPTICAL NETWORK AND A METHOD FOR CONFIGURING AN ASSIGNED PROTECTION PATH

摘要

A network element (100) arranged to be coupled within a working path of an optical network, the network element comprising: a plurality of ports (PI, P2, P3) having first and second ports (PI, P2) arranged to be coupled to Optical Carrier links (106) within the working path; a switch fabric (136) connected to the plurality of ports and configured to couple the first and second ports such that data traffic received on one of the first and second ports is output on the other; a routing table (138) configured to have entered into it a protection entry for assigning prior to any failure in the working paths a protection path having a plurality of network elements, the protection entry including protection switching data; and a control unit (137), connected to the switch fabric, that is operable to monitor for a failure within the working path and, if a failure is detected in the working path, to look-up the protection entry within the routing table to obtain the protection switching data and to insert the protection switching data within the data traffic being output from at least one of the first and second ports; wherein the protection switching data within the data traffic comprises switching instructions for configuring each of the network elements (100, 102, 104) of the protection path that require reconfiguration in order to configure the protection path.